ZFE regulations will change in 2024. Thousands of vehicles will soon no longer be able to drive within several large cities.
From January 1, 2024, new traffic restrictions will be applied in several large cities and offenders will face a large fine. In Paris for example, this ban will apply to all municipalities located within the A86 motorway, including the ring road. This represents more than one city in two (77 out of 131) in the Paris metropolis!
But what exactly is it? Low-emission mobility zones, introduced in France in 2017 to try to reduce air pollution in several large cities in France as much as possible. There are 42 in the country, five of which (Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Rouen) are effective ZFE territories because they regularly exceed regulatory air quality thresholds. In these areas, new restrictions emerge every year. This will be the case in 2024, unlike the cities of Toulouse, Montpellier, Nice, Grenoble, Reims and Saint-Étienne which, due to the improvement in air quality, will not be affected – at least for the moment – by tightening regulations.
After the eviction for two years of vehicles classified as Crit’Air 5 and those not classified – i.e. all vehicles put into circulation before 1996 – the Crit’Air 4 will suffer the same fate next year. Will you be affected by these new restrictions? Yes if and only if you own a diesel vehicle registered between 2001 and 2005. If this is the case, please note that your burgundy colored sticker reserved for Crit’Air 4 will no longer allow you to enter the Parisian ZFE, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Rouen within a few days. In the event of a police check, you will face a fine of 68 euros.
There are six Crit’Air categories, numbered from 0 to 5 depending on the vehicle’s polluting emissions, 0 being reserved for electric vehicles and those emitting very few particles. They are materialized by colored stickers to stick on the windshield and are compulsory for driving within ZFEs. During pollution peaks, the prefect of these large cities can even decide to establish differentiated traffic by excluding the most polluting vehicles from low-emission mobility zones.
If the timetable is respected, Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Rouen will have to exclude a new class of vehicles from January 1, 2025. In fact, all Crit’Air 3, namely diesel cars over 14 years old and petrol cars over 19 years old would in turn be kicked out of these cities. It is also on this date that 32 additional ZFEs will have to be created in towns with more than 150,000 inhabitants. They will then be 43 in France.
