The man who brought the congestion charge to London England has lost his bid for re-election as Mayor of England's capital. Ken Livingstone has always been a controversial figure in British politics but his tenure as mayor of London brought that controversy to new heights. In the course of his eight years at the helm, Livingstone introduced the congestion charge that requires drivers to pay a toll of £8 (about $16) per day to drive into a zone of central London. During the local elections held across much of England in recent days, Livingstone lost his bid for a third term to Conservative party MP Boris Johnson.

The congestion charge was originally pushed as a means of discouraging people from driving into the crowded central area of the city. However, recent studies have indicated that in spite of the fee, traffic has actually gotten worse in London. More recently, Livingstone has moved to expand the congestion zone and change the fee structure to make it based carbon dioxide emissions of the car. As a result cars that emit less than 120g/km of CO₂ would have been exempt from the charge while the thirstiest vehicles would have seen the fee rise to as much as £25 per day. Johnson, the new mayor is opposed to this emissions-based fee and promises to scrap the plan and possibly even rescind the expansion of the congestion zone that occurred in 2007. So it looks like while other cities will proceed with emissions based congestion charges, the city that pioneered the idea may be taking a step back.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Peugeot 107

The British economy is struggling a bit right now thanks to the same sudden realization that a lot of people got unaffordable mortgages in recent years, just like we are experiencing here in the U.S. Combining that with the same rising fuel prices that everyone else is suffering and the latest changes to the emissions-based London Congestion tax, demand for small low emissions cars is on the rise. Diesel-heavy Peugeot appears to be a beneficiary of that market shift in the UK right now. Their smallest model, the 107, which is rated at just 109g/km of CO₂ saw a sales jump of sixteen percent in the first quarter of this year. Having a CO₂ rating of less than 120g/km allows drivers of the 107 to drive into central London without having to pay a congestion charge. While that benefits drivers financially and certainly reduces CO₂ emissions relative to what it might be without any charge, if everyone shifts to these types of cars it won't actually do much to reduce congestion. Peugeot's diesel-powered vans also performed well in the marketplace with a jump of 4.1 percent.

[Source: Peugeot UK]

Danny Fleet is a Londoner with an interest in electric cars. His attituce should come as no surprise given that EVs can avoid the city's congestion charge. Currently, Danny happens to drive one of the ever-popular G-Wiz quadricycles. Danny was lucky enough to be in the area when one of the new second-generation Th!nk city electric cars arrived fresh from the factory in Norway and he got to check it out as soon as they unloaded it from the truck. He recorded video of his tour and his first drive and came away very impressed.

The Th!nk has some pretty decent specs, starting with the fact that it's actually type approved in Europe as an actual car not a quadricycle. To get that type approval it has to be crash tested and meet safety requirements, something quadricycles don't. Th!nk claims the lithium polymer battery will provide a range of 125 miles on a charge and the top speed of 65mph. It's fitted with safety equipment like air bags, seat belts and even ABS. Th!nk will be selling the car in the UK for £14,000 and charging and extra £100 per month for a battery rental. If the charge capacity of the battery falls too low, they will replace it as part of the rental deal. Check out Danny's videos here and here.

[Source: Danny's Contentment]

Once the new London congestion charges were officially announced earlier this month, Porsche started a legal process against the Transport for London group (TfL is behind the c-charge). London officials responded to the threat and in response Porsche has put out a slew of numbers to defend their stance that the congestion charge won't reduce CO₂ emissions in the slightest. You can read their argument for yourself after the jump or check out the company's new website dedicated to the fight.

Porsche's basic argument goes like this: the emissions the fees on gas guzzlers in London will prevent in a year will be equal to the emissions generated at Heathrow airport in anywhere between four minutes and four hours. What Porsche isn't tackling in this debate is that the name of the fee is a "congestion charge." While taking a car off the streets is a car off the streets no matter what comes out of the tailpipe, the Transport for London organizers have decided that swapping out dirty cars for cleaner ones is the right move. There's no question that a lot of CO₂ enters the sky at Heathrow, but that's no excuse for spewing it in downtown London. Instead, it should be a call to clean up the vehicles at Heathrow.

We've already seen Porsche make its case for an exemption from EU emissions rules. With the new, higher congestion charge announce the other day for London, it's no surprise that Porsche is fighting back there, too. It's just hard to be a car company that makes cars that spew CO₂ like it's going out of style.

Today, the upper-end automaker (that's upper end of the price and the emissions scales) announced that it will start a "judicial review process" against the Mayor of London and the Transport for London group (the city organization that imposed the charge) over what it calls the "unjust 3000% congestion charge increase."

Officially, Porsche will write a letter to mayor Ken Livingstone this week, and the mayor's office will have 14 days to respond. Based on the mayor's reply, Porsche could apply to the Royal Courts of Justice to plead its case that charging drivers of dirty cars £25 to enter the city is "completely unfair."

Details in the Porsche release after the jump.

Related:

• Congestion charge up for gas guzzlers: 25 quid for a ride in Central London
• Toyota Aygo, Yaris and Prius exempt from revised London Congestion Charge
• Electric vehicle drivers get some not-so-good news in London

Click image for a photo gallery of the Peugeot 308 range

The M25 is a 117-mile-long motorway that circles the outskirts of London,England. Right now, diesel runs about $8.14/US gallon at Motorway service centers in Blighty. (So if you think we have it bad, well, we don't.) Peugeot decided to do a demonstration of the efficiency of its new 308 S HDi 90 by driving it around the M25. The Ford Focus-sized 308 left with a full tank and accepted 1.99 imperial gallons (2.38 US gallons) when it returned to the starting point. That works out to 49 mpg (US) at an average of just over 50 mph for the trip. The total cost of the trip was just £9.95, which pretty low for a trip in the UK these days. Thanks to a CO₂ emissions rating of only 120g/km this model of the 308 gets into one of the lowest tax bands with a annual fee of only £35. Come October, when the revised congestion charges go into effect in London, that CO₂ rating will allow 308 owners to get into Central London free of charge.


[Source: Peugeot UK]

Major Ken Livingstone has announced that gas guzzlers will have to pay £25 per day to enter Central London from October 27^th onwards. That's a most remarkable change, because most drivers will still pay the £8 road toll for entering the zone which covers designated parts of Central and West London.

The maximum amount will be applied for those cars with CO₂ emissions that exceed 225 g/km, as well as those registered before March 2001 with engines larger than 3 liters. Transport for London (TfL) estimates that up to 30,000 vehicles that fall under this new category are driven in London on a daily basis. TfL also believes that two-thirds of them won't be driven anymore under the new rules. "Nobody needs to damage the environment by driving a gas-guzzling Chelsea tractor in central London," Mr. Livingstone said.

Cars that emit fewer than 120g/km will get a 100-percent discount (as Toyota announced for its Aygo, Prius and Yaris recently and discussed in regards to EVs)

[Source: BBC News]

It didn't take long for automakers to respond to the official announcement yesterday about the changes to the London Congestion Charge. Now that cars that emit less than 120 grams of CO₂ per kilometer will be exempted from the charges that go into effect in October, Toyota has put out a press release highlighting that the Aygo and the Yaris diesel will join the Prius as "Freemen of London." The three cars emit either 104 (Prius), 109 (Aygo) or 119 (Yaris diesel) grams per km. Details in the release after the jump.

Why do I get the feeling we'll hear a lot more about which cars qualify as "Freemen" soon?

[Source: Toyota]

Danny (of Danny's Contentment) is just the messenger here, so don't go hounding him if you're angry about the bad news that Transport for London announced today. While some automakers will probably be pleased with the change, electric car proponents like Danny see this as a potential nail in the EV coffin.

Here's the deal:

The updated rules don't give electric cars special status with regards to the London congestion charge. Instead, these vehicles are grouped into a low-CO₂ vehicle category with all cars that "Produce less than 120g/km CO2 and meet the Euro 4 standard for air pollution emissions OR Produce no more than 120g/km of CO2, and appear on the PowerShift register." All of these cars will be exempt from the charges (rates vary between £8 and £25, depending on vehicle size and CO₂ emissions).

Transport for London said that the goal of the Greater London (Central Zone) Congestion Charging is to:

• Encourage drivers within the charging zone to travel in vehicles which produce lower levels of carbon dioxide (CO2)
• Discourage the use of vehicles with high CO2 emissions

and

• The primary aim of Congestion Charging remains to tackle congestion and encourage drivers to shift from private vehicles to public transport, walking and cycling.

While that last bullet point is certainly noble, I share Danny's concern that grouping low-CO₂ cars with EVs removes one great benefit for drivers in London who were considering getting an all-electric vehicle. We'll keep watching and see how this affects EV and low-CO₂ vehicle sales in the UK. Full details of the rule changes are here.

Related:

• Go with Danny on a quick test drive of the Kewet Buddy in the UK

[Source: Transport for London]

A year ago, London Mayor Ken Livingstone announced plans to revamp the congestion charge system for the central part of the city. The heart of the changes was to go from a single £8 per day flat rate for all vehicles to a system where drivers would be charged an amount based on the CO₂ emissions of their vehicles. Vehicle registration taxes in England are in part based on the emissions band of a vehicle. Starting in 2008, the congestion charge was to have gone up to £25 for the highest emitting vehicles while those that emit less than 120g/km would be exempt from the charge.

However, as ever, the best laid plans have gone awry. In anticipation of the new rules Britons began snapping up low CO₂ vehicles in hopes of avoiding the charges. Sales reportedly jumped by over one-third through the first three quarters of 2007. Now Transport for London is considering abandoning the changes over concerns it may lead to increased congestion and lower revenues. If they do this a lot of people who bought these vehicles solely for this reason would be awfully upset. The Mayor needs to decide what his real goal is. If it's reducing congestion than keeping a flat rate on all vehicles is the way to go. Congestion has nothing to do with how much CO₂ is emitted, it's about how many vehicles are on a given stretch of roadway. If they want pollution reductions but don't care about congestion the previously proposed plan is the way to go. If they want both, then no vehicles should get an exemption but a sliding scale would still provide an incentive to get a cleaner vehicle if you must drive into the city.

Related:

• Will NYC get the congestion charge in early 2008?

[Source: AutoCar, thanks to Danny for the tip]

The website Cleangreencars.co.uk has an idea for you. If, say, you're a luxury car driver who doesn't want to pay the daily London Congestion Charge (currently £8, but it might be going up to £25 in a few months): tell the government you're offering a "private hire" (i.e., taxi) service and cruise London for free (well, for a £82 application fee and £27 per year). Cleangreencars has discovered that there are an unusually high number of luxury cars that have been granted the private hire designation, including two Maserati Quattroportes, three Maybach 62 and eight Rolls Royce Phantoms. See the full list after the break. Cleangreecars is not happy these Band-G cars are driving through the city without paying.

Any of our London readers want to try and actually hire one of these rides?

[Source: Cleangreencars.co.uk]

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has generated a lot of controversy with his plans to revamp the London congestion charge. He wants to replace the flat fee for being able to drive into central London with a sliding scale based on vehicle emissions. Cars emitting less than 120g/km of CO2 would pay nothing while thirstier machines would pay as much as £25 per day.

Needless to say, the remains of the British auto industry are not thrilled by Livingstone's plan. The plan is obviously far more complicated to implement than a flat fee that everyone pays and may end up doing nothing to reduce congestion or emissions. If a lot of people do end up buying low-emitting vehicles, the number of vehicles on the road in London could end up increasing. As for emissions, even Transport for London estimates savings of only 8,100 tonnes of CO2 out of a total of 9.7 million tonnes from ground transportation in London. Reductions in emissions from vehicle manufacturing plants in the UK have cut emissions 780,000 tonnes annually over the last four years. The Society of Motor Manufacturer and Traders wants to extend the comment period on the proposal to try and improve the plan.

[Source: Society of Motor Manufacturer and Traders ]

The proposed changes to the London congestion charge that would change it from a fixed charge to one based on emissions could prove a boon to small diesel engined cars, and Mazda like that possibility. Mazda had been projecting that only ten percent of buyers for the new Mazda2 would select the 1.4L diesel. However if the new changes occur, cars that emit less than 120g/km of CO2 would be exempt from the charges while bigger, thirstier machines could end up paying as much as £25 per day (up from the current fee of £8 per day). So far, aside from some electric "quadricycles" like the Reva G-Wiz, only small diesel cars like the Smart ForTwo, and VW Polo BlueMotion meet that standard. The new Mazda2 would also meet the threshold.

[Source: What Car]

I always take announcements by the Association of British Drivers (ABD) with a few heaping teaspoons of NaCL. After all, the ABD is the group that said teaching kids about climate control harks back to Nazi methds not too long ago, and they're not exactly at the forefront of green driving advocacy.

With that in mind, let's see what they have to say about "Britain's Most Unfair and Absurd Tax Proposal." The Association's release is after the jump if you want to read it how they wrote it, but here's the gist.

Thanks to what the ABD calls "clever German engineering," BMW's large X5, an "Urban 4x4," will not have to pay the £25-a-day Band G "gas guzzler" congestion charge in London. ABD says that letting this £40,000 behemoth into London for 80p a day is wrong. The X5 emits between 231 and 299 gm of CO2 per kilometer, and Band G is supposed to hit any vehicles that spit out more than 225 g/km.

What ABD forgets to make clear is why the X5 will be exempt. Plus, the ABD's problem is not that the X5 will skirt by the charge, but that the charge exists at all, that it's "completely unreasonable." I'd like to know more about why the X5 will be exempted, as the news reports I can find about this issue still place the X5 in the Band G category. As for the "completely unreasonable" accusation, that's rich coming from the ABD.

Related:

• BMW X6 hybrid

[Source: ABD]