Presently cars entering London either have to pay an £8 daily charge OR be registered as a low emission vehicle. Presently this includes all hybrids (regardless of engine size or fuel economy), certain LPG cars and all EV's. http://uk.autoblog.com/2010/10/22/v...ictory-in-major-changes-to-congestion-charge/ The rules next year are to change to only allow cars which emit less than 100g CO2/km and meet Euro 5 emissions legislation. This will now exclude the older gen 1 & gen 2 Prius models but will allow the newer gen3 (2010 US) and the Auris Hybrid. Unfortunately it will also allow many more small diesel cars which despite emitting less than 100g/km of CO2, they will emit much larger amounts of NOx and other pollutants than even the larger (and soon to be exempt) hybrids! (The stricter Euro 5 diesel emissions are not as strict as the Euro 5 petrol limits and no where near the diesel emission limits required in California) Madness. London is about to be fined for the high levels of NOx and other pollutants, yet is now introducing many many more diesel cars. Sounds like the lobbying from Volvo and other diesel manufacturers has worked, but at the expense of air quality. Any comments?
My wife hates London. Not only is it much too big for her as a small town woman with a poor sense of direction but the air quality is so bad that your saliva gets deposits in it.
Allowing diesels (especially smaller ones which usually have no particulates filter and much less any deNox) within a city is going in the opposite direction of what all health studies point at!!! (I'm not sure my english makes sense but you get the point I hope). What Europe needs is to keep diesel cars out of cities not encouraging more of them within its boundaries by such amendments...
This makes my blood boil. Volvo really have pulled a fast one here. It's crazy. Modern small diesels do have DPF's and driving them in inner city environments is totally not suitable for them as the DPF's do not refresh themselves properly. Oh well, we can only be content to watch the poor owners lashing out alot of money to replace them. They would have been so much better off in a Toyota iQ.
People should be educated on the problems that diesel engines have. I was not aware of the pollution of diesel engines before I read about in priuschat forums about a month ago. Here in Europe everyone thinks diesels are environment friendly.
