From 1 January 2025, vehicles with the Crit’Air 3 badge — specifically diesel vehicles over 14 years old and petrol vehicles over 19 years old — are prohibited from entering these zones.
Expansion to 30 new zones
By the end of 2024, 12 ZFEs were operational, covering cities such as Paris, Lyon, Rouen, Reims, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Nice, Marseille, Montpellier, Toulouse, Saint-Étienne, and Clermont-Ferrand.
Starting this year, an additional 30 urban areas are required to implement their ZFE systems in compliance with the Climate and Resilience Act. The legal obligation for these new zones primarily concerns banning:
- Unclassified cars (registered before 31 December 1996)
- Unclassified light commercial vehicles (registered before 30 September 1997)
- Unclassified heavy goods vehicles (registered before 30 September 2001)
In most cities, only unclassified vehicles are restricted. However, for approximately ten cities, specific details have yet to be officially announced.
List of newly established ZFEs as of 1 January 2025
- Dunkirk: No information available
- Lille: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Douai-Lens: No information available
- Valenciennes: No information available
- Amiens: No information available
- Metz: Ban on unclassified passenger cars and commercial vehicles
- Nancy: Ban on Crit’Air 5 and unclassified heavy goods and commercial vehicles
- Mulhouse: No information available
- Dijon: Ban on unclassified vehicles, with a general 12-month exemption allowing all vehicles to circulate
- Annemasse: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Annecy: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Chambéry: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Toulon: Ban on Crit’Air 5 and unclassified vehicles
- Avignon: Ban on Crit’Air 5 and unclassified heavy goods vehicles
- Nîmes: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Perpignan: No information available
- Pau: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Pays-Basque Agglomeration: Ban on Crit’Air 5 and unclassified vehicles
- Bordeaux: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Limoges: No information available
- Orleans: No information available
- Tours: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Angers: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Nantes: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Le Mans: Exempt from the obligation to establish a ZFE
- Brest: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Rennes: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Caen: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Le Havre: Ban on unclassified vehicles
- Bethune: No information available
Low Emission Zone Locations as of 2024
ZFE less restrictive than expected in three cities
Three urban areas have eased restrictions due to improvements in air quality. Marseille, Rouen, and Strasbourg, which, like Paris and Lyon, were originally set to ban Crit’Air 3 vehicles in their ZFEs from 1 January 2025, have had their regulations relaxed. However, in March 2024, the ministerial commission for urban air quality reported a significant reduction in air pollutant concentrations in these three cities, effectively reclassifying them from ZFE zones to “territories under surveillance” (Territoire de vigilance). As a result, the metropolitan areas of Marseille, Rouen, and Strasbourg are no longer required to ban vehicles with the Crit’Air 3 badge.
Instead, vehicles with Crit’Air 4, 5 badges, and unclassified vehicles are prohibited in the ZFEs of Marseille, Rouen, and Strasbourg. In Strasbourg, the ban on Crit’Air 3 vehicles will not be enforced until 2027.
Crit’Air badges
The Crit’Air certificate was introduced in France in 2016 to categorise vehicles based on their type, age, and emission class. There are six vehicle classes, with the highest being the green class, reserved for vehicles that emit no pollution. Trucks are assigned to classes 2 to 5, depending on their EURO emission class and the year of manufacture.