Paris to charge SUV drivers higher parking fees to tackle ‘auto-besity’

Paris city hall is to impose higher parking fees on owners of SUVs in its battle to reduce pollution in the capital.

Details of the charges have not been announced but the size, weight of the vehicle and its motor will be taken into consideration.

Electric vehicles and those with large families requiring a bigger car are expected to escape the increased fees that will come into effect on 1 January 2024.

Paris councillors approved the measure in an unanimous vote last month. Frédéric Badina-Serpette, a councillor from the EELV ecology party that proposed the increased charges, said: “We would like the city of Paris to change the pricing of paid parking to make it progressive according to the weight and size of vehicles.”

He said the aim was “to focus on an absurdity: auto-besity … the inexorable growth in the weight and size of vehicles circulating in our cities, and particularly in Paris”.

Officials say the number of SUVs in the city has increased by 60% over the last four years and they now make up 15% of the 1.15m private vehicles parked in Paris every evening. They hope raising fees will put a brake on the increase and encourage the ownership of lighter vehicles.

“From 1 January 2024, SUV owners can expect to pay higher fees to park in the French capital,” the council said in a statement.

David Belliard, a deputy mayor responsible for public space and mobility policy, said SUVs were incongruous in an urban environment.

“There are no dirt paths , no mountain roads … SUVs are absolutely useless in Paris. Worse, they are dangerous, cumbersome and use too many resources to manufacture,” Belliard said.

However, Pierre Chasseray, a spokesperson for the driver defence group 40 millions d’Automobilistes, said the number of SUVs had risen because larger families were buying them to replace their people carriers.

“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.

In Lyon, the authorities have also announced higher parking charges based on vehicle weight from next year. Grenoble is expected to introduce a similar scheme.