2022 can be summarised as an inflation dominated year. Government keeps adding pressure. Recently it was announced that electric cars will start paying excise duty. Now we are told – ULEZ is expanding in London as of late August 2023.
This will be bad news for many living in Greater London. Many people will now be impacted. Their car ownership can become unaffordable altogether.
Not only running the car will be more expensive. The value of your car will be impacted significantly as well.
what is ULEZ
ULEZ stands for Ultra Low Emission Zone. This is an area designed to penalise drivers of cars that pollute the most.
ULEZ makes the drivers of cars with engines that do not meet EURO 4 for petrol and EURO 6 for diesel pay a daily fee for using their car within this zone. You do not have to pay if your car is parked up and you aren’t driving it.
Currently the zone operates inside North and South Circular roads in London.
As a rule of thumb – petrol cars registered after 2005 and diesel cars registered after 2015 will be excluded from ULEZ charge. It is however worth checking your vehicle before driving into ULEZ zone. The easiest way to do so – enter your car registration details here.
why ULEZ is expanding
There has been a lot of research into poor air quality and what it does to people who regularly breath it. Most findings say shortened line expectancy and various health issues.
One way of tackling it – charging significant fees on those who pollute the most. Reducing the number of vehicles that pollute a lot will benefit all of us in the long run.
In the image above you can see the central London congestion charge in the smallest circle. The slightly bigger one is the current ULEZ zone. The biggest one – is the proposed expanded ULEZ zone that will be operating as of 29th August 2023.
how much will this cost
Currently a charge to enter ULEZ zone stands at £12.50 per day. There has been no information to say that the charge would go up.
This in my view is only temporarily though. As inflation will stay high for the near future – the odds of ULEZ charge becoming more expensive are high.
Even if the charges stay at the current level – someone driving into London every day would have to splash out over £4,500 per year.
This might be obvious to many however here it comes. If your car doesn’t meet ULEZ standards yet you need to drive into London daily – buy a different car. While this recommendation might sound arrogant, I am confident that there are cars that cost less than £4,500 that are ULEZ compliant.
This way you will actually save yourself money in less than a years time.
Heathrow will be impacted as well
This is likely to become a massive blow to those who like to drop their friends and family off at Heathrow. Currently – you already have to pay £5 to enter the drop off area. This will become much more expensive.
As of 29th August 2023 on top of the Heathrow fee – you will need to pay the ULEZ charge. What this will do – turn your simple drop off into a £17.50 fee.
This is also a big watch out for those taking a cab to the airport. Make sure you are aware if these fees need to be paid and if this is coming out of your pocket at all.
While looking at the air quality is important – this seems to me like a step too far. It’s not like Heathrow with all of the planes is really cutting the emissions down. Charging drivers nearly £20 to drop people off seems extreme.
I am not aware of any decent alternatives being currently proposed in order to actually reduce traffic while giving travellers a chance to get to the airport.
ULEZ is expanding and will hit the value of your car
What all of the above is most likely going to do – hit the price of cars that aren’t ULEZ compliant. This is something to be mindful of and to start planning for early.
The nearer we get to August 2023 – the harder it will become to sell a car that doesn’t meet ULEZ emissions. As a result, this will give way more negotiating power to the buyer.
Start planning by checking if your car meets these requirements. This can be easily checked here.
Next step – check the post codes that you visit the most. Places like your home, work, grocery store, schools and nurseries. Any places that you drive to frequently should be checked. The easiest way to do so – use this post code checker.
If you drive frequently and a number of these locations is within the newly proposed expanded ULEZ zone – consider your options. One of the more obvious ones should be changing your car.
This has a chance of saving you thousands in the long run.
summary
While ULEZ is a great initiative and should help us all breathe cleaner air – the timing of it is a bit questionable. As people are going through a cost of living crisis asking them to splash out on a new car – might be a step too far.
There is a question to be asked if government is more concerned about taxes it collects rather than the air we breathe.
One thing for sure – this won’t change. What you can do next – make sure you are aware if this will impact you and the car you drive. Check if any of the locations you visit frequently will be impacted by this change.
It then becomes a simple numbers game. You need to weight up a cost of swapping your car to what it will likely cost you to continue using your current car.