New buyers of the Toyota Prius hybrid will no longer be exempt from the London Congestion Charge, after a change in the way its carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are measured moved its official output above the 75g/km exemption threshold.
While current Prius owners won’t be affected by the change, anyone who purchased a new Prius from 1 February 2018 will find their car judged against updated criteria, meaning they will have having to pay the capital’s £11.50 Congestion Charge.
The Prius used to officially produce 70g/km of CO2 when running on 15-inch wheels. This made it a favourite of private hire owners, as they could drive into London while escaping the Congestion Charge. But that figure has now increased to 78g/km, while CO2 levels for a Prius running on 17-inch alloys have increased from 76 to 82g/km.
The rise has come because Toyota is switching the measure it uses to gauge the Prius’ CO2 levels from NEDC to NEDC-equivalent; the latter test was designed to precede the switch from NEDC to new WLTP testing criteria in 2019, and is considered a halfway house between the two measures.
Vehicle excise duty, commonly known as road tax, has also increased for those buying a new Prius: the first-year fee for models with 15-inch alloy wheels has increased from £25 to £100. Perhaps more significantly, Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) rates for business users of the same car have risen from 16 to 20 per cent.
While the Prius Plug-In is also likely to be measured against NEDC-equivalent criteria soon, its lower CO2 emissions of 22g/km (under outgoing NEDC rules) make it highly unlikely its emissions will rise above the 75g/km Congestion Charge exemption threshold.
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