Driving in
Driving in Southampton
Hampshire, England. What is different here rather than what is the same everywhere.
259,230
No zone
SO
Checked on 30 June 2025.Office for National Statistics, Population estimates, local authority based by single year of age (mid-2025) (as of 30 June 2025)
No charging zone here
Southampton has no clean air zone, low emission zone or congestion charge. Nothing about the age or fuel of your car changes what it costs to drive into the city, and the only motoring charges that apply are the national ones.
What is different about driving in Southampton?
Very little, in charging terms. Southampton runs no zone, so the national rules are the whole story. What is local is the shape of the fleet and the charging network, which the figures below describe.
Local figures for Southampton
- Southampton has no clean air zone, but Portsmouth's class B zone is 20 miles east along the M27, and it charges buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles and lorries rather than cars.
- 27.4% of Southampton households had no car or van at the 2021 census.
- About 100,500 licensed cars were recorded in the city at the end of March 2026.
- The city had 171 public chargers at 1 April 2026, or 65.9 per 100,000 people, one of the lowest densities of any large English city.
The numbers behind those lines
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Vehicle fleet | Southampton has no clean air zone, but Portsmouth's class B zone is 20 miles east along the M27, and it charges buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles and lorries rather than cars. |
| Public charging | Southampton has no clean air zone, but Portsmouth's class B zone is 20 miles east along the M27, and it charges buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles and lorries rather than cars. |
| Car ownership | 27.4% of Southampton households had no car or van at the 2021 census. |
Common questions
- Is there a clean air zone in Southampton?
- No. Southampton has no charging or low emission zone, so no daily charge applies to driving there. The nearest zone, if any, is in a different authority area.
- What does a car pay to drive in Southampton?
- Nothing. There is no zone charge in Southampton. The only motoring charges that apply are the national ones: vehicle excise duty, fuel duty and any local parking scheme.
- How many public chargers are there in Southampton?
- Southampton has no clean air zone, but Portsmouth's class B zone is 20 miles east along the M27, and it charges buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles and lorries rather than cars.
- Are motoring rules different in England?
- Vehicle tax, speeding penalties and licensing are set nationally, so they are the same everywhere in Great Britain. What varies locally is whether a charging zone applies and what it costs.
Sources
- Office for National Statistics, Population estimates, local authority based by single year of age (mid-2025) (as of 30 June 2025)
- Office for National Statistics, Population estimates for England and Wales: mid-2025 (as of 29 July 2026)
- Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, TS045 car or van availability (as of 21 March 2021)
- Department for Transport, Vehicle licensing statistics, table VEH0105 (2026 Q1) (as of 31 March 2026)
- Department for Transport, Electric vehicle charging infrastructure statistics, table EVCI0102 (as of 1 April 2026)
- GOV.UK, Driving in a clean air zone (as of 30 July 2026)