Clean Air (Low Emission) Zones - VW T5 camper content
Discussion
Our city is one of the dozens of urban areas preparing plans for a Clean Air Zone, seemingly modelled on London's version whereby a daily charge is levied on non-compliant vehicles. It looks as if ours will be in place within 2 years.
We have a camper conversion based on a VW 2013 Transporter (T5.1 2.0 TDI). The emissions standard for diesels will probably be Euro 6 - generally post-2016 - and Euro 4 for petrols. We may or may not be in the local zone, but the main arterial roads are all covered in the proposals so we may as well be.
London residents appear to be getting 3 years of "100% discount" for their versions, so I don't think this will be a direct cost for some years yet - but I do think it's going to be a big deal locally. I'm just glancing now at rows of popular pre-2016 diesels (Golf TDIs, Volvo D5s etc) parked outside our house.
We generally cycle to work, but the van is our main vehicle despite being driven only 5,000 miles a year. We also visit in-laws in Fulham. I should also add that I'm all for clean air; our son has asthma.
I suppose it's too early to take action, but I do wonder whether this will be a fairly important in the world of campers over the next few years. Are retrofitting devices to give Euro 6 compliance viable? (A quick scan suggests a cost of £1,800-£3,500!) We have lots of friends living in or close to our local zone and, like us, will eventually have to do something or foot a fairly large bill.
We have a camper conversion based on a VW 2013 Transporter (T5.1 2.0 TDI). The emissions standard for diesels will probably be Euro 6 - generally post-2016 - and Euro 4 for petrols. We may or may not be in the local zone, but the main arterial roads are all covered in the proposals so we may as well be.
London residents appear to be getting 3 years of "100% discount" for their versions, so I don't think this will be a direct cost for some years yet - but I do think it's going to be a big deal locally. I'm just glancing now at rows of popular pre-2016 diesels (Golf TDIs, Volvo D5s etc) parked outside our house.
We generally cycle to work, but the van is our main vehicle despite being driven only 5,000 miles a year. We also visit in-laws in Fulham. I should also add that I'm all for clean air; our son has asthma.
I suppose it's too early to take action, but I do wonder whether this will be a fairly important in the world of campers over the next few years. Are retrofitting devices to give Euro 6 compliance viable? (A quick scan suggests a cost of £1,800-£3,500!) We have lots of friends living in or close to our local zone and, like us, will eventually have to do something or foot a fairly large bill.
Edited by The Cardinal on Sunday 2nd September 21:24
I guess you could visit you friends in the zone but park outside and bus in? Or get them to meet you? Not a long term solution, the only one I can see is to swap the T5 for a more enviro friendly one, as has been discussed before, spending £3,500 to make it compliant is just pouring money down the drain, it won't increase it's value will it?
We can use our car for urban driving and tend to walk and cycle around town anyway. The issue is that the charge would be inescapable, as it will almost certainly cover the major routes we'd to get out of town in the van.
I guess it would probably amount to £500 a year, assuming £10 a pop. We often go out of the city and then return on a different day - so that would be £20 per trip!
However, a newer Euro-6 based conversion would be another £10-30k on top of the current value of our van. I also estimate that retrofitting a Euro 6 compliant device would have a pay-off of 4-7 years, based on £1,800-3,500 upfront and annual AdBlue costs.
So, it wouldn't be worth replacing the van for this reason alone. But I can see the costs stacking up differently for other pre-2016 diesel vans.
I guess it would probably amount to £500 a year, assuming £10 a pop. We often go out of the city and then return on a different day - so that would be £20 per trip!
However, a newer Euro-6 based conversion would be another £10-30k on top of the current value of our van. I also estimate that retrofitting a Euro 6 compliant device would have a pay-off of 4-7 years, based on £1,800-3,500 upfront and annual AdBlue costs.
So, it wouldn't be worth replacing the van for this reason alone. But I can see the costs stacking up differently for other pre-2016 diesel vans.
Hello all. I live in LONDON, inside the south circular, north circular boundary, so I've been paying £12.50 every time i leave my house since this tax started
the emissions standard should have been done with the MOT as they do an emissions test anyway, then anyone who wanted to drive a vehicle that didn't cause issues to other people could have done this straight away.
I am lucky that my VW transporter T5 diesel is euro 5 so I can now get it retrofitted to euro 6
I am unlucky that I bought a VW because the company are scumbags who knew this was coming and falsified their emissions results to continue selling unlawful vehicles
Finally I can now get a grant of up to £6,000.00 to get the retrofit equipment installed.
because of the grant system where the installers have to be registered, they can charge whatever they want
if the users can get a grant of £6,000.00 it's obviously not going to be any cheaper than that
even though the components have not been specially made, they are the same parts fitted to all the diesel transporters sold after 2015
I suspect the cost of parts, if I was to do the retrofit myself would cost about £1500
I have just been quoted £ 8,100.00 to have my van retrofitted. that's equivalent to driving in the ULEZ zone 648 times
I have heard of other people scrapping their vans for the scrappage money buy TFL took so long to process the application either their tax or insurance had expired so no grant was given
the emissions standard should have been done with the MOT as they do an emissions test anyway, then anyone who wanted to drive a vehicle that didn't cause issues to other people could have done this straight away.
I am lucky that my VW transporter T5 diesel is euro 5 so I can now get it retrofitted to euro 6
I am unlucky that I bought a VW because the company are scumbags who knew this was coming and falsified their emissions results to continue selling unlawful vehicles
Finally I can now get a grant of up to £6,000.00 to get the retrofit equipment installed.
because of the grant system where the installers have to be registered, they can charge whatever they want
if the users can get a grant of £6,000.00 it's obviously not going to be any cheaper than that
even though the components have not been specially made, they are the same parts fitted to all the diesel transporters sold after 2015
I suspect the cost of parts, if I was to do the retrofit myself would cost about £1500
I have just been quoted £ 8,100.00 to have my van retrofitted. that's equivalent to driving in the ULEZ zone 648 times
I have heard of other people scrapping their vans for the scrappage money buy TFL took so long to process the application either their tax or insurance had expired so no grant was given
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