SUV in Paris: are you affected by the tripling of parking prices?

You may soon have to pay more for parking in Paris. Parisians in fact approved on Sunday by 54.55% Anne Hidalgo's proposal to triple parking prices for SUVs and other largest cars. “This pricing will be applied from September 1,” announced the PS mayor of the capital on Sunday evening on her WhatsApp thread, after a deliberation planned at the Paris Council on the subject next May. But will you be affected by this measure? Le Figaro answers you.

If the Paris town hall insisted in the communication around its vote on the term SUV, the citizen consultation organized on Sunday was broader than the simple “Sport Utility Vehicle”, these heavy and elevated vehicles. The exact title spoke of “heavy, bulky, polluting individual cars”. It is thus a weight criterion which was used by the town hall. The tripling of parking measure will concern “owners of a thermal or plug-in hybrid vehicle of 1.6 tonnes or more” – i.e. the threshold at which the penalty was lowered to the weight of the government on January 1, 2024 – and “owners of “an electric vehicle of 2 tonnes or more”, specifies the Paris town hall. Regarding fines, the prices of post-parking packages (FPS), imposed for absence or insufficiency of payment, they will also triple.

Also read: “Why not make the builders pay?” : Parisians divided over the anti-SUV policy

Before the vote, Anne Hidalgo and her green deputy for Mobility David Belliard had affirmed that the surcharge would concern “around 10% of the fleet” of cars frequenting the capital. That is to say around 7,000 vehicles out of the approximately 70,000 parking tickets generated every day in Paris. According to estimates from the company AAA Data, provided to Les Échos, it would be more. It has in fact calculated that nearly 16% of vehicles in Île-de-France fell within the criteria of the measure, i.e. nearly 900,000 cars in the region (out of a total of nearly 5.6 million), including 129,000 in Paris. Of this total, only half correspond to SUVs as they are traditionally defined. The others being sedans or family vans.

Thus, owners of Tesla Model Y, which was the eighth best-selling new car in France in 2023 according to the Automobile Platform (PFA) - and the first globally -, will be affected by the surcharge. Other electric models are concerned, such as the Volkswagen ID.4 Pro, the Audi Q4 40 e-tron, the BMW iX1 or the Skoda Enyaq Version 60. On the thermal and rechargeable hybrid side, we can cite the BMW X5, the Mercedes GLC or the Lynk

However, not all owners of “overweight” vehicles will have to pay the parking surcharge (18 euros per hour for the central districts and 12 euros for the outer districts). In particular, Parisian residents “parked in their authorized parking zone” will not be affected by this increase (95,000 Parisians hold a parking subscription at a preferential “resident” rate). Likewise, taxi drivers, craftsmen and health professionals, as well as people with reduced mobility will be exempt. Parking will also remain free for all vehicles during the night and on Sundays.