Cities need to drive a hard bargain with the most polluting cars

Given that air pollution is one of the main factors that make city life unsustainable (as highlighted by last week’s post on Ulez), finding a way to mitigate it is vital. But since much of the pollution comes from motorists commuting into cities, they should be a target. But clamping down on that is hard — as Paris may find out.

The combatant Parisian Mayor Anne Hidalgo, fresh from her victory in a referendum to ban self-service rental e-scooters from the French capital’s streets, plans to hold a vote on hiking parking fees for sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

In a post on Twitter, now X, Hidalgo said that there were too many large polluting cars, which were “taking up more and more space in our streets, on our sidewalks or even on our cycle paths”.

To counter this, she will impose “significant increases” in non-residential parking charges. Based on the e-scooter poll that was backed by 90% of 103,000 Parisians, she will win a referendum scheduled for February.

But as the BBC’s Hugh Schofield has pointed out, ownership of SUVs is relatively low inside the capital's 20 districts or arrondissements where opposition will be minimal. The drivers who will therefore be hit by higher parking fees will those living in Paris’s suburbs and outlying towns who drive their SUVs into Paris for work or pleasure. And they, of course, cannot vote.

Meanwhile another French city, Lyon, will actually become the first city to do this. Unlike Paris, Lyon will charge all drivers, both residents and motorists. But it has imposed a charge scale linked to emissions. While low-income households and owners of electric vehicles and cars weighing less than 1,000 kg (a Renault Twingo weighs 854kg, to give some idea of scale) will pay €15 a month, those owning cars of 1,725kg or more will pay €45.

This is important as SUVs have on average 20% higher CO2 emissions than conventional cars due primarily to their greater mass, says climate campaign group Possible. And their numbers are growing.

According to the International Energy Agency, while total cars sales fell 0.5% SUV sales increased by around 3%. In 2022, a year when SUVs accounted for around 46% of global car sales, CO2 emissions from the 330 million SUVs worldwide reached almost 1 billion tonnes.

Unsurprisingly, hostility is rising especially in Europe, which makes SUVs fair political game. This has been evidenced by groups of night-time saboteurs who use a cunning trick with a lentil to deflate the tyres of these gas guzzlers in New York City, and British cities.

In the UK, The London Borough of Camden is matching Paris, with a proposal to raise the cost of parking for residents’ annual permits 5% next year to £559 verses £45 for a zero emissions car, while doubling on-street parking fees.

EVs must be cheaper to buy as well as run

But, of course, individual cities putting up financial barriers to SUVS is not enough, for two reasons. The first is that, as Possible explains, the historic link between low incomes and polluting cars has now been reversed.

The drivers of high price-tagged, heavily emitting vehicles currently come from wealthier households. One in three new cars bought in London boroughs such as Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, and Hammersmith & Fulham are large SUVs, while sales of electric vehicles remain lower than those of super-heavy-emitting new cars.

For those owners an increase in congestion charges or parking fees will be easily absorbed.

Secondly, moves that apply to cars driving within a city’s limits may not have much impact on overall regional levels of pollution. In other words, the pollution may be displaced (assuming that some drivers stop commuting in). Unless a city can form an alliance with its neighbouring boroughs — which is unlikely if they come from different political parties — the impact will simply be to displace that total stock of pollution.

That means tougher action will be needed. Rather than base charges on the type of vehicle and its weight, commuting and parking charges should be linked to the amount of carbon emitted by the vehicle. That would make the cost of running polluting vehicles more punitive.

This will help offset the fact that EVs tend to cost more per type of vehicle than conventional models. The US Department of Energy has highlighted research showing that maintenance costs for a light-duty, battery-powered car are around 40% less per mile than for a petrol- and diesel-powered car.

Analysis by the US Environmental Defense Fund showed that EVs could provide lifetime cost savings of up to $18,440. Those savings will increase over time as battery prices continue to fall and production increases, it said.

The price of EVs will hopefully fall as demand rises and the technology behind their batteries, the most important component falls (the price of lithium-ion batteries has already fallen by 97% since 1991.

In the meantime, subsidies to cover the upfront cost would help. Again, it seems to be the French pointing the way. A year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a new scheme for electric vehicle subsidies, prioritising lower-income households. Paris, Lyon and Camden have taken steps in the right direction, but to effectively reduce the impact of carbon air pollutions accelerated action is needed.