Currently reading: London Mayor Boris Johnson plots war against diesel cars
The price to drive a diesel-fuelled car into central London could breach £20, according to new clean-air proposals put forward by Boris Johnson

London Mayor Boris Johnson is considering a plan to charge owners of many diesel cars a supplementary £10 to drive into central London on top of the existing Congestion Charge, pushing the price past the £20 mark to visit the capital.

According to a report by The Times, the Mayor will tonight announce his plans as part of a push to slash air pollution in the capital.

Other cities across the UK could follow by introducing their own versions of London's Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) to meet increasingly stringent clean air rules set by the European Commission.

Under the Mayor's plan – which could be introduced in 2020 – the Euro 6 compliant diesel engines that are currently being rolled out would be exempt from the extra charge, but some older and less-efficient petrol-fuelled cars could be penalised.

London is under severe pressure from Europe policy-makers due to its above-average levels of air pollution, and the toxins produced by diesel vehicles are cited as a key contributor to respiratory diseases. The Congestion Charge currently costs £11.50 per day for vehicles which produce more than 75g/km of CO2.

Mayor Johnson, the newspaper reports, also intends to lobby the government to increase road tax on diesel cars in an effort to persuade motorists to move across to cleaner car models.

Just under half of the new cars registered in the UK each month are diesel-fuelled, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Get the latest car news, reviews and galleries from Autocar direct to your inbox every week. Enter your email address below:

Join the debate

Comments
19
Add a comment…
JOHN T SHEA 3 August 2014

JUST ANOTHER DUMB BLOND.

Just another dumb blond.
bowsersheepdog 2 August 2014

misnomer

i'm sure somebody somewhere must have made this point before though i don't recall having seen it but if it's a congestion charge to ease traffic congestion then wouldn't it be more logical to have a basic charge which then increases for cars over say twelve feet in length, then again for those over say sixteen feet? and those regardless of engine emissions. if everybody drove zero-emission cars which were twenty-five feet long that would not solve the congestion problem would it? personally i don't fall for the global warming fallacy but that's by the by, if government believe in it and want to solve it by taxation that should be done by the tax disc or the fuel tax, which can target those cars most responsible as they see it. congestion charges based on emissions rather than the space a vehicle requires are nonsense.
gazza5 30 July 2014

Dirty derv

I drive a diesel - main reason why - tax. Cheaper road tax, uses less fuel so less tax to government.

Do I like diesel - not really - give me a petrol car anyday. Will I return to petrol - would love to for my next car, petrol tech is catching up in my opinion with diesel. My wife just got a pug 2008 1.2 - its perfectly fine around town which is what she uses it for and is returning 40 mpg. My diesel is returning 45 mpg (but is a lot faster than the pug 2008).

WOuldl ove a 1 series M135i as I honestly think in 10 years time cars like that will simply not be around. We will all end up with CVT gearboxes and hybrid power.

Then the government will then move us all back to diesel to lower co2 and so the cycle continues.

We all got diesels to save money - plain and simple - now government has realised and will move the goal posts again.