Low Emission Zones: Finally on a Realistic Path for Mobile Professionals?

22/06/2026
09:36

reading time : 2 min

Lucie Monnot

Content Marketing Manager

Implementing low emission zones has been anything but smooth sailing! The concessions granted by the government and the creation of consultation bodies giving professionals a voice have led to more realistic timelines. But have all the obstacles been removed?

Currently being rolled out across 11 metropolitan areas*, the LEZ scheme is set to be extended by 2025 to all urban areas with more than 150,000 inhabitants that do not meet air quality standards. For both private individuals and professionals, bans on certain vehicle categories are the concrete expression of low emission zone implementation. The ban schedule is therefore at the heart of the issues and the social acceptability of LEZs. It is this schedule that determines when everyone will be required to replace their vehicle(s) in order to continue operating within restricted areas.

Paris, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Strasbourg, Rouen, Reims, Saint-Etienne, Grenoble, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nice

A more flexible timeline, but still complicated...

The schedule set by the 2019 Mobility Orientation Act (LOM) and the 2021 Climate and Resilience Act was from the outset considered overly ambitious and frankly unworkable, given the composition of the French vehicle fleet, particularly the significant share of diesel vehicles and/or those classified as Crit’Air 3 and Crit’Air 2, which are subject to upcoming circulation bans in the 11 existing LEZs.

Faced with public opposition, professional mobilization, and the difficulties encountered by local officials tasked with implementing LEZs, the government relaxed the timeline, pointing to improved air quality observed in most metropolitan areas. Based on this criterion, a new typology was established, distinguishing between areas that regularly exceed regulatory air quality thresholds and those that do not. The former are now called “LEZ territories” and are subject to a binding schedule; the latter, renamed “vigilance territories”, benefit from greater flexibility, whether an LEZ is already in place or planned. As a result:

On
July 10, 2023, the LEZs of Reims, Saint-Etienne, Grenoble, Montpellier, and Nice were exempted from the Crit’Air 3 vehicle ban set for January 1, 2025.

On March 19, 2024, this exemption was extended to Aix-Marseille, Strasbourg, and Rouen.

As of today, the exclusion of Crit’Air 3 vehicles from January 1, 2025 now only applies to Greater Paris and Greater Lyon. That said, although exempted, Strasbourg, Montpellier, and Grenoble have announced their intention to maintain their original schedule and therefore ban Crit’Air 3 vehicles from 2025. Ongoing negotiations with various stakeholders may lead them to reverse their positions and push the ban back to 2028 or 2030, as other exempted territories have done.

The Crit’Air 2 ban, the most controversial as it effectively means eliminating all diesel vehicles, is left to the discretion of each local authority. It is likely that all urban areas that had considered banning them before 2028 will now back down.

Persistent challenges for mobile professionals

The postponement of ban deadlines was presented as a victory by citizen associations and political opponents of LEZs. Environmental advocates, on the other hand, saw it as a retreat, as the president of the Respire association noted in March 2024:

“Yes, air quality is improving, but it remains poor. Levels measured in France are still well above WHO recommendations. Furthermore, the reference thresholds are completely outdated and will be drastically lowered as part of the revision of the European air quality directive.”

“What is being done for private individuals is what I call a sweeping-up policy: we’re helping those who have the most difficulty meeting air quality standards. And if the diesel fleet doesn’t shrink, if purchasing power issues arise, there is a temptation, for reasons of social acceptability, to push back the date.

For goods transport, it is a completely different story. A professional who invests in a clean vehicle does not do so based on LEZ deadline dates.

It might be 3 years before the deadline, which means that for 3 years, they will be competing with others selling the same service but with fully depreciated diesel vehicles that cost them three times less to operate. There is no market mechanism to reward virtuous transport.”

Faced with this inability of the market to value virtuous investments on its own, professionals express 3 closely linked expectations:

1 – Stick to the announced dates, because those who invest in time need the assurance that everyone will be monitored and that those not complying will be penalized. Yet to date, not only have the dates been changed multiple times, but no automatic LEZ enforcement system has been deployed. The radar system currently being evaluated by national authorities will not be approved before 2026.

2 – Take vehicle supply into account when setting timelines. If the supply needed to meet air quality standards does not exist or is quantitatively insufficient, it is simply impossible for all stakeholders to come into compliance by the planned dates. Consultation with “clean” vehicle manufacturers is therefore an essential prerequisite for establishing realistic ban schedules for professionals.

3 – Local authorities must offer benefits and incentives to those who invest. While lamenting the proliferation of local exemptions, transport professionals are calling for privileges that reward their investments. This could include the ability to make deliveries at night or to access pedestrian zones with a silent (compressor-free) electric truck. This type of facility provides a tangible commercial advantage to those bearing higher operating costs.

“To create a freight LEZ, we need to agree on the rules and create conditions that correct what the market will not fix on its own. We are in the process of inventing the rules of the game that will make freight LEZs acceptable to professionals, and therefore effective.”

Harmonization of rules is underway

Leaving local authorities free to define the timeline, perimeter, and rules of their own LEZ has resulted in an unreadable situation across both geography and time, with countless temporary or permanent exemptions creating endless operational problems for mobile professionals. The Union TLF, which brings together 2,000 transport and logistics companies, has consistently reminded stakeholders that, by nature, carriers operate across multiple territories, and has called for national harmonization of LEZ rules. This is one of the missions of the ministerial committee for urban air quality established in late 2022, in which professional unions, local authorities, and the DGITM have been involved. This collective work allowed stakeholders to reach agreement on the following realities:

the operational realities of carriers;
industrial vehicle production;
fleet renewal rates, which vary significantly depending on whether you are an own-account carrier or a third-party carrier.

“Thanks to this collective work, we get the sense that local authorities and public decision-makers are becoming more aware. Beyond more realistic timelines, what is beginning to emerge is a common regulatory baseline, particularly for exemptions, that could apply at a national scale and simplify life for everyone.”

Olivier Poncelet, Secretary General, Union TLF

Carriers playing along

Clear, stable, and consistent rules are all that carriers are waiting for. They are ready to fully commit to LEZs, provided they receive economic support during their fleet transition. Hence their call for a simplification of aid through the creation of a single access point. As Pierre Lefevre, Head of Indirect Purchasing at Pomona Group (2,350 trucks), explains: “Economic support is essential because alternative energy trucks are significantly more expensive than combustion engine trucks. With LEZ generalization in mind, we are gradually integrating biofuels (B100, HVO) and starting to look at 100% electric, with a more complex economic equation to solve. There are multiple types of aid. Some are reserved for smaller companies. Projects launched by ADEME require putting together a specific application file just to hope for some form of support. It is all very case-by-case and does not always align with our fleet renewal and greening plans. Combining all of this with contract end dates is not always straightforward.”

“Switching to electric also means adapting the electrical capacity available at our sites. Economically, today, we have more to lose than to gain. But we have a low-carbon trajectory to meet and we must move forward. With LEZs, it is somewhat under pressure, but ultimately it is also an opportunity.”

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