The Mayor of London has agreed to review the workings of the congestion charge and the exemptions available for low emission vehicles. Currently, exemptions from the charge are available for hybrid powered cars. The best achievement of a hybrid powered car in relation to CO2 outputs is 89g/km but some hybrids emit as much as 219g/km.
However, it is believed that at the beginning of this year that there were16 types of non-hybrid green cars which emitted less than 105g/km of CO2. These include cars such as the Volvo range employing start/stop technology.
This means that currently as many as 9,500 car users may be paying up to £2,000 each per year to enter the Capital notwithstanding that they are driving low emission cars which often have a better performance than their hybrid equivalents.
Boris Johnson has now accepted that technologies have improved since the congestion charge was introduced and that exemptions from the charge will need to be renewed. This task will fall to Transport for London, who will report later in the year.
