Paris Plans Heavy Parking Penalties for Big SUVs and BEVs

Paris regulators plan to penalize overweight vehicles by targeting SUVs and battery-electric vehicles with hugely inflated parking fees.

The plan, which follows on from September’s ban on rental e-scooters, will be put to a citizens’ vote in a bid to tackle the issues caused by oversized vehicles including damage to Paris’s delicate, ancient. often-cobblestoned road infrastructure. The referendum, titled The place for SUVs in the capital, will be held in early February.

Reuters reports that city authorities want to raise parking fees for internal-combustion-powered vehicles weighing more than 1.6 metric tons and for BEVs weighing more than 2 metric tons. License plate scanners will determine whether a vehicle is due to pay higher parking fees by linking to a database showing a model’s weight from the automaker’s homologation details.

Paris has been pressuring motorists in recent years under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has been increasing parking costs and gradually eradicating particulate-emitting diesel vehicles while boosting the bicycle lane network in the heavily congested capital.

Deputy mayor and ecologist David Belliard tells Reuters: “We need to reduce the number and the size of cars in the city, that is why we will submit to a vote the question of how much space there should be for this type of vehicle in Paris. (The SUV vote) is to tell all those who continue to use their private cars because they're the richest: No! In a few years, in a few months, they won't be welcome in Paris with this type of behavior.”