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Electric vehicle owners to pay London congestion charge from 2025

04 July 2024

by Christopher Carey

Transport for London (TfL) has announced plans to charge electric vehicle (EV) owners the full daily congestion charge from December 2025.

Currently, drivers of zero-emission vehicles pay £10 (US$12.76) for a yearly exemption from the daily £15 charge, but from late next year will be liable for the full amount.

“The congestion charge’s cleaner vehicle discount was part of our phased scheme to tackle London’s toxic air,” a TfL spokesperson said.

“Ending the cleaner vehicle discount from 25 December 2025 will maintain the effectiveness of the charge, which is in place to manage traffic and congestion in the heart of London.”

Currently 112,318 cars and vans are registered for the discount. Of these, 15,782 are private hire vehicles like taxis.

TfL say over 52,000 grants have been approved for London residents, businesses and charities to switch to cleaner vehicles.

Puzzling

The move has been criticised by some environmental groups and the Federation of Small Businesses.

Campaign group Clean Cities called the change “puzzling”, saying it could affect businesses.

“Our latest polling shows most Londoners believe small businesses should have more support to help them switch to cleaner electric vehicles,” Oliver Lord, UK Head of Clean Cities told Cities Today.

“Obviously the congestion charge wouldn’t work if everyone had a free pass but it’s puzzling this incentive is being taken from small businesses who rely on polluting diesel vans and need the most help to go electric.

“Now is not the right time for the Mayor to axe this vital support for small businesses until there is a robust plan to boost the uptake of electric vans, which is essential to clean our air and hit our climate goals.”

The removal of the exemption is the latest change to affect EV owners, who have seen incentives to switch from petrol and diesel vehicles reduced in recent years.

The national Plug-in Car Grant purchase incentive for EVs was removed in June 2022 and from April 2025 EV owners will have to pay road tax, albeit at a lower rate than petrol and diesel vehicles.

Image: TfL

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