Volvo wins DRIVe drivers free pass into London

Volvo has delivered prospective buyers an important new carrot in the carbon conscious, stick-wielding UK. The prestige car maker has shown the City of London the error of its ways through the courts, winning an important reprieve for owners of diesel-engined cars that emit fewer than 100 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Previously, London had imposed its congestion tax on lean-burning diesels while waiving the impost for hybrids, even those as large and potentially profligate as the Lexus LS 600 hL.

No city in Australia has imposed a congestion tax yet, but Sydney and Melbourne are understood to be considering such an initiative. Importers selling clean diesels in Australia may need to be on the front foot to dissuade the Australian cities from configuring a congestion charge that favours hybrids over diesels.

In the UK, Volvo mounted a campaign to redress what the company claimed was an inherent injustice in the urban Congestion Charge scheme. Current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, consequently changed the rules to waive the £8 a day impost for all Euro 5-compliant cars and those emitting less than 100g/km CO2.

The waiver had been reserved for alt-fuel and hybrid vehicles, effectively penalising the many advanced petrol and diesel burners that better them in CO2 emissions. Among the disadvantaged were Volvo's C30, S40 and V50 DRIVe models, all good for 99g/km.

The emissions equality campaign took just over a year, the company sending its first missive to the Mayor in June 2009, and subsequently inviting adversely affected drivers to join an online petition.

Under the revised rules, they and a number of other conventionally powered models will qualify for the Greener Vehicle Discount from January, saving drivers up to £2500 a year.

Not that this is locked in forever. With legislation driving emissions steadily downward, supervising agency Transport for London has vowed to keep an eye on progress, particularly under the influence of a raft of new EVs and PHEVs due out in 2011 and 2012. With the discount criteria to remain under constant review, the agency will be monitoring total emissions patterns to see if the 100 per cent discount threshold just announced might not shift from sub-100g to sub-80g cars.

Should that happen, Volvo will be ready. The company has already taken the wraps off a V70 PHEV wagon it claims limbos in under 50g/km CO2 -- and it says the vehicle's plug-in technology will be ready for rollout in 2012. There's also a zero-emissions C30 EV in the offing.

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