EV owners and drivers with large families are expected to dodge the new charges levied according to a vehicle’s size and weight
https://www.carscoops.com/author/chris-chilton-cc/
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by Chris Chilton
July 12, 2023 at 13:00
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Driving in Paris is no picnic and finding somewhere to park can be a nightmare. But it’s about to get even more painful for some drivers when the city introduces tough new parking charges next year aimed at curbing what one councilor termed “auto-besity.”
He’s talking about SUVs, which have become hugely popular in France, and particularly Paris, over the past few years, as they have in almost every part of the world. Parisian officials think SUVs are wasteful and inefficient and plan to hit them with higher parking fees in a bid to cut pollution in the French capital.
Though the exact details of the scheme due to come into effect on January 1, 2024, haven’t been disclosed, it’s expected to set charges based on a vehicle’s size, weight and powertrain. EV drivers and people with large families who can therefore legitimately claim a need for a large vehicle are expected to be exempt from the inflated parking prices.
Related: English Drivers Could Pay Double To Park High-Polluting Cars
City regulators, who estimate that the number of SUVs in Paris has increased by 60 percent over the past four and now make up almost one in seven of the 1.15 million vehicles parked in Paris every night, voted unanimously to back the scheme last month.
“There are no dirt paths, no mountain roads… SUVs are absolutely useless in Paris,” said David Belliard, the city’s deputy mayor responsible for mobility. “Worse, they are dangerous, cumbersome and use too many resources to manufacture.”
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But not everyone is in favor of the higher charges. Pierre Chasseray from the driver defence group 40 millions d’Automobilistes said the increase in the number of SUVs was down to larger families buying them to replace minivans, The Guardian reports.
“They are family vehicles … used for going away at weekends or on holiday. We’re pandering to a tiny minority of the very urban population who have decided to make the SUV the symbol of the battle against pollution,” Chasseray told Le Parisien.
