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ZFE: Is your vehicle affected by an exclusion from the low-emission zone in 2025? ?

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Quelle vignette pour quel véhicule ? CERTIFICAT-AIR.GOUV.FR – SW

En l’absence de sanction et dans la nébuleuse des dérogations, aucune voiture ne restera au garage. Chaque ville applique sa propre règle. Tour d’horizon en région, dans ces périmètres de "zones à faibles émissions" et à géométrie variable.

The law of August 22, 2021 on the fight against climate change made the establishment of ZFE mandatory in all urban areas with more than 150,000 inhabitants before December 31, 2024. The Low Emission Zones (ZFE), numbering twelve so far, are extending to around thirty urban areas since this Wednesday, January 1, 2025.

Two of them are obliged to prohibit the circulation of cars with a Crit'Air 3 sticker (i.e. dating from before 2011 for diesel cars and before 2006 for gasoline cars), namely the urban areas of Paris and Lyon.

Those of Montpellier and Grenoble are joining them voluntarily, by deciding to implement a restriction on the circulation of Crit’air 3 vehicles from January 1st, even though they are not required to do so, unable, it is explained, to resist strong ecological convictions.

Marseille and Toulouse authorize Crit’air 3

Since 2022, the air quality in these areas has improved, and the implementation plan concerning the circulation of polluting vehicles has evolved. Marseille, Strasbourg and Rouen are finally allowing Crit Air 3 vehicles to circulate in their ZFE beyond January 1, 2025, choosing to apply other levels of restrictions.

Some only prohibit cars registered before 1997 and not classified, others Crit’Air 4 and 5 stickers.
Toulouse Métropole has adopted a measure relaxing the ZFE, allowing a Crit’Air 3 vehicle to circulate at least until December 31, 2025.

In Montpellier, no sanctions are planned

Since January 1, Crit’air 3 vehicles and above, or 60,000 vehicles in the metropolitan area, are no longer authorized, like Paris and Lyon. At least on paper. 11 municipalities have been affected since 2022, so this is not new: Castelnau-le-Lez, Clapiers, Grabels, Jacou, Juvignac, Lattes, Le Crès, Montpellier, Saint-Jean-de-Védas, Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, Saint-Brès and Castelnau-le-Lez.

From exemption to verbalization

“Anyone caught with a Crit’Air 3 vehicle in Lyon, Villeurbanne, Caluire-et-Cuire, Bron and Vénissieux will receive a class 3 fine. That is 68 euros for a light vehicle, and 135 euros for a heavy vehicle such as a truck". True or false ? In Lyon, as everywhere else, without signs to prohibit access or indicate entry into a ZFE, there is no possibility of ticketing. Which would amount to issuing a ticket for prohibited parking in the absence of adequate signage.
In Lyon, however, the rate of fines went crazy between June and August 2024, when centrist elected official Laurence Croizier reported in the city council that “4,700 fines had been issued”, the vast majority “for not having a Crit'Air sticker on the windshield”. Failure to carry the sticker is punishable by a fine of 68 euros. To avoid this, it is better not to delay in ordering yours on the official website of the ministry for the sum of 3.81 euros. The real axe will fall in the second half of next year when automatic license plate reading radars will be installed at key points in the urban area. To issue fines, you still need the power, through signage or radars that are supposed to accompany the deployment of ZFEs, which is far from being the case. These radars responsible for sanctioning non-compliance with the imposed rules will begin their experimentation. From mid-2025, the Greater Paris metropolis will, for example, be equipped with radars for educational purposes, which will warn motorists of their potential infraction. Before actually issuing fines by 2027!
Fines for illegal presence in a ZFE are therefore not for now. A series of disparate exemptions exist, but here too, it will be necessary to juggle from one ZFE to another. In Bordeaux, for example, a person suffering from a long-term illness can continue to drive for three years, regardless of their sticker. While in Rennes, the measure will not apply to certain traders and workers with staggered hours. In Montpellier, whether the vehicle is Crit’Air 3, or even 4 or 5, it can continue to circulate, but on condition of being a declared "low mileage driver", by producing the last two technical inspections attesting to an annual mileage of less than 8,000 km with a sworn commitment not to travel more! Open to individuals and professionals, a 52-day pass per year can be activated, the equivalent of one day per week. It is therefore better to find out about the restrictions, city by city, before venturing there, whether you are a professional or a simple tourist. Especially since in the event of a pollution peak, temporary measures may be decided. 2025 is therefore described as an “educational” period everywhere, giving motorists time to adapt. Or not. It seems that the flexibility and the multiplicity of exemptions have marked the end of the ZFE, even before they were born.

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It is not until July 1, 2026, that all 31 municipalities in the Metropolis will have to comply. Frédéric Lafforgue, mayor of Castelnau-le-Lez, which is very close to Montpellier, proposed in December to “suspend the current schedule”. Supported by the mayors of twenty municipalities, a moratorium will be voted on by the metropolitan council on February 13th, aiming to postpone the implementation of a ZFE, which is accused of imposing constraints without offering viable solutions.

Maintained but not controlled, and without any sanctions for offenders, Michaël Delafosse assumes his “yes but no”: “No fines will be issued”. In any case, not in the absence of signs indicating the entry into the ZFE. To be continued.

Regarding motorized two-wheelers, the display of a Crit’air sticker has not been required since January 2024. All can circulate without restriction in the Montpellier ZFE.

Nîmes adopts in 2025, Perpignan postpones to 2026

The two cities are part of the new ZFE created on January 1, 2025, among the 30 others in France. But Perpignan is postponing its ZFE to 2026, although the first vehicle ban measures are not very restrictive. At the community council of September 2024, the vice-president in charge of the environment and ecological transition, Marc Médina, announced the postponement of the application of the ZFE to January 1, 2026.

For Nîmes, it is therefore a question of respecting the very first step, namely the exclusion of so-called unclassified vehicles, i.e. registered before 1997 for cars (i.e. less than 3% of the cars in the Nîmes rolling stock; 12% of heavy goods vehicles).
To be in phase in Perpignan as in Nîmes, it is enough to have affixed a Crit'air sticker on your windshield.

As in Montpellier, Nîmes will not fine

Several routes are exempt: motorway network (A 9, A 54), national roads (N106, N113), service routes to the industrial zones of Grézan (D 999) and Saint-Césaire (D40, D613), which provide access to the CHU, and departmental routes allowing route continuity to be maintained outside the Low Emission Zone.

Béziers: not concerned

LEZs exist in urban areas with more than 150,000 inhabitants. For the moment, only the metropolitan area of ​​Montpellier is concerned in Hérault, but not the Béziers municipality, with its 82,530 inhabitants.

“The art of putting citizens in violation”

Critics It is a “gas factory” denounced by the detractors of the ZFE, in particular the association 40 million motorists which demands “the pure and simple repeal of the ZFE”, considering that these zones constitute “social time bombs”. “Who will still be able to drive tomorrow ?”, they ask. “What is incredible with the perimeter of the ZFE is that a sign indicating the entrance to the zone can appear anywhere, at any time. Example on a motorway: no possibility of turning around, no park and ride." For the association, it is "the art of deliberately putting citizens in breach of the law." "The absurdity of ZFEs is also the fact of banning vehicles from cities that successfully pass the technical inspection, while this has included a reinforced pollution inspection since 2019." We also see a « “death of city centers already well underway”, when we do not hesitate to requalify the acronym ZFE as “Highly Exclusion Zone”.

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Teilor Stone

Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116

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