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The London congestion charge has been in place for long enough that even if you don't pass through it on a regular basis, many of you will have paid the fee at some point. However, one way of mitigating the charge is to drive a super-efficient vehicle as electric vehicles and hybrids have been exempt.
The problem with this is that it has been exclusive to certain technologies, automatically rejecting petrol and diesel vehicles, and favouring hybrid vehicles regardless of emission levels. It therefore comes as a welcome change that with the average emissions of cars coming down the exemption has been extended to all vehicles which emit below 100g/km of CO2 and meet Euro 5 air quality standards.
This new Greener Vehicle Discount (GVD) is a fairer and simpler system which makes sense in terms of encouraging a switch to less polluting and more CO2 efficient cars. For individuals and businesses affected by the London congestion charge, it provides another variable to be factored into vehicle selection.
With some conventional petrol and diesel cars now exempt, I would expect to see a reaction from those that navigate the Congestion Zone on a regular basis, potentially selecting conventional but clean vehicles when they may previously have been swayed towards electric or hybrid technology.
What this also means that it's not safe to assume that just because you own a hybrid, it's still exempt from the congestion charge - something that's well worth checking. So it's really important to know about costs like this one and factor them into any vehicle selection process.
Vehicle selection has become complex because of the range of costs and pressures that influence the decision; it is made even more difficult because, as the example above illustrates, these costs are constantly changing.
The upshot is that a total cost of ownership approach remains the best way to make the right decision because it factors in the full range of costs across the lifetime of a vehicle. This means incorporating costs like environmentally linked taxes and charges alongside things like fuel, depreciation and maintenance and is certainly the approach that I would recommend.
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