The suspension of fines in Madrid for polluting vehicles without a label (type A) of residents, which will no longer be effective as of January 1, 2025, has shaken the way in which many Madrid residents approach mobility in the face of the next year. For some people it has been a relief, since they will be able to continue covering their journeys in the same way.
But for others, those who had already given up their tourism, the poor foresight of the announcement (the City Council announced it last Thursday the 12th, just 20 days after the rule became effective) catches them with a changed step. “I took it to the scrapyard just last week,” Plácido, a Villaverde resident who said goodbye to his diesel Renault Scénic after 23 years, laments in conversation with Somos Madrid. He says that he had some minor repairs pending, although the extension to the entire municipality of Madrid of the Low Emissions Zone was the definitive reason why he decided to scrap it: “They could have thought of it before,” he says about the moratorium.
The extension of the Madrid Low Emissions Zone was going to affect the owners of vehicles registered in the capital or registered with the Mechanical Traction Vehicle Tax (IVTM) without an environmental label, in addition to motorcycles and goods vehicles. from anywhere in the region or country. Finally, the fines of 200 euros for improper circulation will not arrive (at least) until January 1, 2026, since the City Council uses a planned legal tool, the notice period, to extend it twelve months and not sanction any neighbor. during this interval. The Mobility delegate, Borja Carabante, assured last Thursday that no Madrid resident could be fined throughout 2025 for not having an environmental label.
Plácido assumes that “it’s time to renew,” but in cases like Laura’s, resignation has rather given way to indignation: “My father is 84 years old and has changed cars only because of the limitations that were coming. If they renew his license it will almost certainly not be more than a year, so obviously I value what the City Council has done.
My father is 84 years old and has changed cars only because of the limitations that were coming. If they renew your license it will almost certainly not be more than a year, so obviously I value what the City Council has done as terrible.
“We feel very bad that the decision is made in 20 days, when people have already adapted. My father’s Citroën C3 didn’t cause any problems, he was very happy with it. That is precisely why the change in criteria makes us so angry. We called Madrid Line 010 many times and there they confirmed that the rule was going to apply from January 1, no matter what. They sent us a website with everything very clear, although my parents said it couldn’t be. Until we saw what it was going to be and in September they bought a new car,” he explains.
Laura emphasizes that many of the people who own these vehicles without labels are older: “For them it is a very big upheaval.” He indicates that his parents, residents of Barrio del Pilar, move around the city by public transport and only use their private vehicle to leave Madrid when they go to town or the beach.
Plácido’s anger also grows as the conversation progresses: “I have a colleague with a 100,000 kilometer Mercedes who is going to have to throw it away. He has already told me that, if the Civil Guard stops him, he will respond that they pollute more than him.”
Antonio, who lives in Ensanche de Vallecas, complains that he was forced to “undersell” his 2004 Citroën Xsara (which does not have the B label for only a few days) through a platform: “I knew that in January I could get him out of the house.” He decided to be cautious and manage everything in August: “From September onwards I wasn’t going to have time and also the car had to pass the MOT.” He used it for long trips that require him to cross Madrid and, at the moment, he has not replaced it with a new vehicle.
Antonio is especially bothered by the conclusions that someone can draw from the way in which the City Council has approached and suspended the measure: “Arbitrariness penalizes the most responsible citizens. Breaking the rule is applauded and you look like a fool.” He believes that the “vacillations” of regulation are due to the fact that “those who legislate live in the center or do not take public transportation.”
Asked if he foresees that in 2026 the sanctions on cars without a label in Madrid will be effective, Antonio is skeptical: “I no longer believe anything. In the end there are no incentives. The city rewards those who do not comply with the rule or those who have a lot of money.”
Relief for lagging drivers with the change of vehicle
Ana, a resident of Malasaña, is one of the people who benefited from the suspension of fines: “It is very good for me. I was totally overwhelmed. “I already saw myself on New Year’s without being able to return from my brothers-in-law’s house.” She says that both her car and that of her husband lack an environmental label: “We went from two to zero.” He justifies the delay in getting a new car because no alternative convinces him: “My problem is that I can’t decide.” Finally, indecision will allow you one more year to think about it.
The two family vehicles are each 22 years old, but according to Ana, their useful life lasts longer: “They are very amortized and do not cause us any major problems. In the end, a new car costs a lot of money, it has nothing to do with one that is already paid for and has third-party insurance.” They use the larger one as a family vehicle, while she takes the smaller one for work: “I am a technical architect, so I travel to construction sites and places with difficult accessibility. The good thing about my car now is that I don’t suffer if it fills with mud.”
Ana does have some reproaches to throw at the Executive of José Luis Martínez-Almeida: “We only have one parking space and to see what we do with the other car we have to know what happens with the parking meters in the SER areas. [Servicio de Estacionamiento Regulado]. At this point in December they still haven’t confirmed anything.”
Another criticism is directed at the lack of places for recharging electric vehicles: “We want to replace the two cars with one and we thought about making it electric. But the problem is that they force us to change while not giving us options to do so. In Malasaña, for example, the few points are in rental garages. And in my workplace, an office area for more than 3,000 workers, there is none either.”
This newspaper has consulted sources from the City Council’s Mobility area to find out their response to the complaints included in the piece, especially about the queries addressed directly to Línea Madrid in which the municipal body confirmed to citizens the execution of the measure. Until the time of publication of the article, these sources have not responded to the questions raised.
One of the arguments with which the area delegate, Borja Carabante, justified the moratorium for residents in 2025 is the substantial improvement in air quality in Madrid since restrictions on road traffic began to be applied. The latest data, recorded in October, show a significant decrease in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution data from all stations in the city. The Annual Limit Value (ALV) has fallen significantly compared to that recorded during the same period in 2023. The stations were below 29 μg/m3 (the current limit set by Europe is 40 μg/m3) and nine stations of the 24 would comply with the new European directive that will apply from 2030, which establishes a maximum of 20 μg/m3.
Meanwhile, the municipal government has made other points of the legislation more flexible to control emissions. It has extended the exemptions provided for circulating in the capital from January 1, 2025 without receiving notices and from January 1, 2026 without being subject to fines. Now includes owners of A vehicles of more than 3.5 tons if they are self-employed (or sole proprietorships) who are 59 years old in 2025 or older; owners of A vehicles or family members who need it to transport them to medical or hospital centers to undergo hospital treatments (consultations are not included) and people who have purchased a new low-emission car, but who due to manufacturing issues have not yet received it. .
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