Around 200 cities in 12 European countries have established Low Emission Zones, where depending on the Emission Standard of your vehicle, you can be denied access on certain days/times.
More info on how to ascertain the emission qualification of your vehicle on the website of the European Commission.
From there you can click through to the countries and the cities that have a LEZ in place. In most countries, the Euro qualification on your car´s paperwork will suffice, but in France, e.g. for access to the centre of Paris, as of the 1st of April 2017, foreign plated cars must, like the French cars, carry a ´Vignette Crit´Air´ – a ´clean air´ sticker.
On this page, scroll to the bottom, you can see an overview of the Euro qualifications and how they relate to the Crit´Air criteria, ranging from 1 for recently manufactured vehicles to 5 for vehicles produced between 1997 and 2000. Older vehicles will not be able to obtain a Crit´Air sticker and thus be denied access to the Low Emission Zones in France. The criteria applied to LEZ zones in France will continue to get more restrictive: as of July 2017 diesel cars manufactured before 2001 are no longer allowed in the LEZ of Paris, for example. Only those with at least Crit´Air category 4 will be.
As of February 1st 2017 the Crit´Air website will facilitate drivers of foreign vehicles to buy the required Vignette/sticker, but if you want, you can already make use of the simulator to determine what Crit´Air qualification your vehicle would get. The sticker costs 3,70 euros plus postal charges. Non-compliance with this French traffic regulation can involve a fine between 68 and 135 euros.
To make use of the simulator, click the light blue car symbol ´Simulation´ in the horizontal toolbar on the page.
After the 1st of February we will do a trial-run of the module to order the sticker. Hopefully the site will provide an English translation.