LONDON ULEZ EXPANSION 2021

If you’re a frequent London driver or visitor by now you probably know that on the 25th of October 2021 the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) was expanded quite considerable!

Where as before it used to cover central London, the new expanded area reaches, but not include, the North and South Circular, growing a whopping 18 times the size of central London covering 3.8 million people.

Without doubt this expansion has been one of the largest in the country with the aim to clean London’s toxic air and prevent Londoners from early deaths caused by polluted air.

The ULEZ control area is active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except for Christmas day.

 

 

Who is affected?

If you drive in, travel to or live within the ULEZ area, then you’re affected by this expansion, and will need a vehicle that meet the strict requirements or face the daily charge of £12.50.

If you don’t know whether your vehicle meets the ULEZ criteria, check out here before travelling to London.

You can also check if your home or destination falls under the new expansion, by using this post code checker.

 

Commercial Vehicles Drivers be Aware

If you’re a van, lorry, coach, or bus driver you ought to know that your vehicle will need to meet the LEZ standard instead of the ULEZ. Although this might sound as a relief,  the charges for LEZ are much higher than ULEZ. Read more about the difference between LEZ and ULEZ here.

 

Pushing Electric Vehicles

There’s no doubt that cities all over the country are pushing for more LEZ and ULEZ zones to be added and expanded. And I guess this should be the way forward, if we as a country, want to meet our goals of 0 net carbon by 2030 and have 100% clean air.

But the question pops up, how would this affect those that cannot afford an electric vehicle? Is the EV charging point infrastructure big enough to support all of us having electric vehicles? The answer is NO, at least to second question.

Is the answer to push everyone in the UK to have an electric vehicle at some point? This is a debate that has no right or wrong answer as there will always be pros and cons. What remains is true is that everyday we are nudged little by little into the EV arena.

If you’re thinking in getting your feet wet with a brand new electric vehicle or electric van, we’ve got some good options where to start with great budget friendly deals.