The restrictions of the new Low Emission and Special Protection Zones (ZBE or ZBEPE) to the capital have already arrived. And soon, probably, to other municipalities. But what if you don’t have a vehicle with an environmental label? How to continue circulating throughout Madrid with a older car? The truth is that you can, and all with a classic car.
Madrid will give greater freedom to classic cars
At the end of 2022, the Madrid City Council announced its Sustainable Mobility Ordinance that changes the name of Madrid Central to Madrid Distrito Centro and creates a new Low Emission Zone in Plaza Elíptica, which has already been operating since December.
In those, we talked about that since the day January 1 all Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants They must have their own Low Emission Zone. In this sense, the main traffic restrictions would fully affect vehicles that are not entitled to the DGT environmental label. This, following logic, would also affect classic vehicles… but with nuances.
We are talking about the fact that Madrid contemplates an exception for them, so if we have a classic car parked in the garage (or that be considered old) and we live in one of the cities affected by LEZs, what we know from the DGT is that greater freedom will be given to this type of vehicle.
The historic vehicle certification is granted by Traffic, but ultimately it is each City Council that, in practice, authorizes the circulation of the model in question. Among other things, here comes into play the Low Emission Zones that are required, in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, the new European pact against climate change. And of them and for the moment, only Madrid has confirmed the exception to the classics.
They will be able to enter restricted areas.
We are talking about those that are at least 30 years old. If the manufacturing date was not known, the registration date was considered valid.
Thus, in Madrid, cars from the past will be able to circulate on the M-30 urban highway, which is the perimeter that defines the access limits, and also reach the urban center and even enter restricted areaslike the new Madrid Downtown District.
In those, and for a car to be collected as a classic, the DGT collects three key points:
It is important to highlight this: it will be necessary for the vehicle to have the registration as a historic vehicle, whose procedures are currently complex and tedious. Precisely, what this type of law orders is to try to simplify this entire procedure.
In this, and with all this documentation, it will be the Autonomous Community (in this case Madrid) that finally accredits whether or not it is a historic vehicle.
