The London Congestion Charge rules have been tightened

There has been an announcement recently about changes to the Congestion Charge which means that only full electric models and plug in hybrid models are exempt. 

The legislation that surrounds the Congestion Charge in London has been tightened, which brings the exemption threshold down from 100g to 75g. This means that low emitting models such as the Fiat 500 TwinAit, the Toyota Prius and the Smart ForTwo are no longer free, though full electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and plug in hybrids like the Vauxhall Ampera, remain free. 

Following the revelation of the new legislation, Nissan emphasised the advantage they had with a very well thought out marketing stunt. It filled a skip with cars that were previously exempt and paraded it around London bearing a slogan saying "Skip the Congestion Charge". 

Nissan have claimed that the Leaf model could cover up to 500 miles, which is more than four complete circuits of the M25, for the same price of a single day's congestion charge. London now has the largest charging network on street that can be found anywhere in Europe, with more than 1,300 charging points, which makes owning an electric vehicle a a much more viable option. 

Other vehicles that are still exempt from the congestion charge include a whole host of models from Renault that includes the Kangoo Z.E, Zoe, Twizy and Fluence. Options from other manufacturers are still available which remain exempt such as the Vauxhall Ampera, Toyota Prius Plug in Hybrid and the Chevrolet Volt, whilst the upcoming Panamera e-Hybrid model from porsche will also be exempt.