Drivers in London warned December rule change will cost '£5,500 per vehicle'

Forty businesses have moved to sign an open letter to Labour Party Mayor Mr Khan saying extending the £15 daily levy to electric vans will backfire.
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Sadiq Khan and Transport for London are under fire over a change which could cost London drivers £5,000. Ocado and AA have rushed to join the growing revolt against London congestion charge for electric vans. Forty businesses have moved to sign an open letter to Labour Party Mayor Mr Khan saying extending the £15 daily levy to electric vans will backfire.

On Christmas Day 2025, drivers of electric vehicles will start ­having to pay the same £15 a day charge as those driving petrol and diesel ­vehicles in central London. An open letter to Mr Khan backed by Clean Cities, the environmental campaign group, and the Federation of Small Businesses says the current system, where they pay £10 a year to register each vehicle as exempt, played a “fundamental role” in those investments and that the decision to end the exemption will inflict an “astronomical cost” of £5,500 per vehicle per year on the firms that have already made the switch away from diesel.

Abolishing the exemption would undermine firms who have “taken on debt to invest in the air we breathe”. “Ten years ago, it was common to blow your nose and find black ­particulates on your handkerchief,” said Edmund King, president of the AA.

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“This has thankfully changed. Cutting the discount for electric vans is a detrimental policy which could backfire on the health of Londoners and the economy of London. We still need to encourage zero emission transport rather than deter it.”

Oliver Lord, UK head of Clean Cities, said that Khan’s decision was “at odds with his track record and his commitment on climate”. “Ultimately, small businesses are those set to suffer the most, with the progress towards a cleaner, electric future choked off in an economic situation already fraught with challenges,” Lord said.

“How is it right that a dirty diesel van pays the same as a cleaner electric vehicle in the most polluted part of the UK?” Laura Timm, Federation of Small Businesses London Policy Chair said: “Small firms all over London have faced a ‘cost of doing business crisis’ for the best part of a decade and many have ‘done the right thing’ and invested in green initiatives within their business.”