Don't believe everything he says on the internet. Indeed, there is a lot of false information. Here is a good recent example.
In fact, messages and even videos are circulating on the internet indicating that all vehicles affected by a Crit'air3 sticker will no longer be able to circulate throughout French territory from the start of 2025. This exact statement a few years ago is become obsolete due to improvements in air quality. Indeed, most of the messages date from 2022, but in the meantime, The air quality of several territories has improved. Result: the application plan concerning the circulation of polluting vehicles in large French cities has therefore evolved.
Today, to the 12 currently existing ZFEs (Paris, Lyon, Aix-Marseille-Provence, Nice, Toulouse, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Reims, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Clermont-Ferrand), 30 other agglomerations of more than 150 000 inhabitants will be added on January 1. This concerns in particular the cities of Lille, Bordeaux, Dijon or Rennes. In terms of restrictions, in 2025, these new EPZs will have the sole obligation to prohibit the circulation of cars and light utility vehicles not classified as Crit'Air (cars registered before 1997). This will not prevent them, if they wish, but without obligation, from also restricting traffic for Crit'Air 4 and 5 vehicles.
To recap: among the 42 ZFEs that France will have in 2025, there will be only two, Paris and Lyon, which will be required to put in place traffic restrictions for private vehicles classified Crit'Air 3while the ten other ZFEs already in place will not be obliged to strengthen their current restrictions from January and the thirty new ones will only have to put in place restrictions for unclassified vehicles.
In practice, to Lyon, Crit'Air 3 cars will be – like Crit'Air 4, 5 and unclassified vehicles – prohibited from circulation with 24-hour exemptions possible within the limit of 52 days a year. DIn Greater Paris, the ban will apply from Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., except on public holidays and with possible exceptions within the limit of 12 days per year.
The other 40 EPZs are qualified as “territories of vigilance” : this means that they respect the regulatory air quality thresholds, but with a concentration regularly higher than the value recommended by the WHO. Their compliance with regulatory thresholds nevertheless allows them to not be obliged to restrict the circulation of Crit'Air 3s from 2025, a category of vehicles representing some 20% of the French automobile fleet in 2024.
A low risk of fines
Consequently, only Parisian and Chinese motorists will be affected. In practice, offenders risk a fine of €68, but it must be recognized that the risk of contravention is low in the absence of video fines.
