MacSid

Folks,

Here's some info I've garnered the hard(ish) way while planning my Easter weekend in Cologne, and thought I'd share in case you did not already know. All of this was news to me this week.

Germany is proceeding at full steam towards restricting entry to cities based on the emission levels of cars - yes, even if you've got a foreign-registered car. Basically, more and more cities are allowing only certain classes of vehicle (based on emissions) into them. You must have a sticker in your windscreen showing what class your vehicle is, and this is going to denote whether you can enter those cities or not.

I guess everyone in Germany's already fully aware of this, but not necessarily those of us who live in neighbouring countries and drive into or through Germany every now and again. Those of you Stateside who are doing EDs are likely to be impacted as well. I'm guessing car rental companies will already be ready for this (for those of you who may fly in and rent), but it never hurts to double-check. There's fines and/or points for non-compliance.

The stickers are effectively free of charge, but the issuing organisations may charge a processing fee on your application for a sticker - I paid EUR 17.85 to T?V Nord in the Netherlands to get mine, but there are places in Germany where you can get them for as little as EUR 5. I've attached an overview document from the ADAC (German Automobile Club), in English, which pretty much covers the basics, but you can also get more information on the scheme, and the cities/rollout dates from the following sources:

The AA in the UK (English)
European Low Emission Zone Infosite (English)
The ANWB in the Netherlands (Dutch)
The ADAC in Germany (German)

From what I can tell, restrictions are already in place in Berlin, Dortmund, Cologne, Hanover (requirement for foreign-registered cars waived for 2008), Stuttgart and a handful of smaller cities. More cities will start restrictions during 2008, including Munich, Freiburg, Augsburg, Bremen and Heidelberg to name a few. The zones are signposted with:
The signs show what colour stickers are allowed inside the zone.

So, if you didn't already, now you know

gene1

Brilliant!!!!!!!

Jounia

MacSid, Thanks for the info! I've checked on te link you gave me for the AA website, and from what I understand, if you are visiting Hannover in 2008, foreign registered vehicles don't need a sticker??? See here

MacSid

You're quite right - although Hanover has implemented the zone already, foreign-registered cars are exempt for 2008.

Jounia

what about the Netherlands? Is there something similar there too?

MacSid

The Netherlands (as in Italy, Austria and the UK) also has Low Emissions Zones but, in all of these countries, they apply only to trucks. To the best of my knowledge, Germany is the only country so far to roll this out to cars, but do check the link to the European Low Emission Zone Infosite in my original post, and you'll see all the details there.

JSpira

Not recent news. I had posted something on Bimmerfest (Euro. Delivery forum) last August on this.

It also won't impact Euro. Delivery cars since they are brand new and get category 4 stickers.