Poll: SUV drivers in Paris to be charged higher parking fees, should Australia follow?

Paris has announced plans to impose higher parking fees for bigger cars from January 2024 – in an attempt to discourage the ownership of SUVs and larger petrol and diesel vehicles.

According to news outlet The Guardian, the new rules will see a vehicle’s size, weight and power source will be taken into account when calculating how much vehicles are charged to park on the street.

However electric or other low-emission vehicles – which need to carry heavy batteries that increase the vehicle’s weight – are planned to be excluded from the increased fees.

The decision to increase parking was unanimous in a vote among Parisian councillors, noting the number of larger SUVs in the city has increased by 60 per cent in the last four years – and about 175,000 privately-owned SUVs are parked on the streets of the French capital every evening.

“There are no dirt paths or mountain roads, SUVs are absolutely useless in Paris”, said David Belliard, Deputy Mayor for Public Space and Policy.

Motoring groups have raised objections to the plan, saying many large families require a bigger car.

Paris already operates a low-emission vehicle restriction within its inner-most ring road – the Périphérique – where only petrol vehicles compliant with Euro 2 emissions standards, or diesel vehicles compliant with Euro 4 can enter, and with a permit only.

These dates exclude petrol vehicles registered before 1997, and diesels registered before 2006.

The city was to increase these restrictions to Euro 4 petrol and Euro 5 diesel standards – which would exclude petrol vehicle registered before 2006, and diesel vehicles registered before 2011 – from 1 July 2023, but this has been postponed to 1 June 2025.

From 2030 onward, between 8:00am and 8:00pm all petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned from driving within Paris, overseas media have reported.

Other cities in France (Lyon and Grenoble) are set to follow the large vehicle parking fee increases implemented in Paris.

Poll: Should larger vehicles be charged more for parking?

Is this a fairer approach to vehicle usage in an urban setting? If you live in one of our capital cities and drive a large car, should you pay more for parking?

Let us know in the poll below.

The post Poll: SUV drivers in Paris to be charged higher parking fees, should Australia follow? appeared first on Drive.