Euro 4

Euro 4 applied to new passenger car type approvals from 1 January 2005 and to new registrations from 1 January 2006. From that 2006 date a new petrol or diesel car in this timetable could not be registered below Euro 4. The same Directive 98/69/EC table that set Euro 3 as row A set Euro 4 as row B.

This is the petrol pass mark for almost every clean air zone in the country. A petrol car that holds Euro 4 meets the test. A diesel car that holds Euro 4 does not, because diesel needs Euro 6. Fuel is half the answer at this stage in a way it was not at Euro 1 or Euro 2.

Transport for London's published rule of thumb is that petrol cars which meet the ULEZ standard are generally those first registered as new with the DVLA after 2005. That wording points at the 1 January 2006 registration date. It is a guide, and TfL still goes on the declared emissions rather than the year.

Petrol carbon monoxide falls from 2.3 g/km at Euro 3 to 1.0 g/km. Petrol hydrocarbons fall from 0.2 g/km to 0.1 g/km. Petrol nitrogen oxides fall from 0.15 g/km to 0.08 g/km. Those are the type approval numbers in the directive, not roadside measurements.

Diesel carbon monoxide falls from 0.64 g/km to 0.5 g/km. Combined diesel hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides fall from 0.56 g/km to 0.3 g/km. Diesel nitrogen oxides fall from 0.5 g/km to 0.25 g/km. Diesel particulates fall from 0.05 g/km to 0.025 g/km.

Petrol still has no particulate limit. A Euro 4 petrol car can be port injected or, later in the run, direct injection, and the passenger car table still does not weigh petrol particles. That wait ends at Euro 5, and only for direct injection.

A petrol car first registered new from 1 January 2006 is the first compulsory cohort that meets the petrol zone test by law. Small hatchbacks and family petrol cars from those years are the ones a ULEZ buyer actually wants, not a newer diesel that still sits at Euro 4 or Euro 5.

A diesel of 2006 to 2010 can be a Euro 4 car with a much lower particulate limit than Euro 3, and still pay every zone day. Buyers who treat any 2006 car as a pass are reading the TfL petrol rule of thumb onto diesel. The rule of thumb is petrol only.

Every UK zone in this dataset that charges cars asks for Euro 4 from petrol and Euro 6 from diesel. A Euro 4 petrol car therefore drives in free on emissions grounds. A Euro 4 diesel pays. The London ULEZ, the English clean air zones and the Scottish low emission zones all use that pair.

Scottish low emission zones still do not take a daily fee as a way in. A Euro 4 diesel car is not allowed in, and the first capture is a penalty. A Euro 4 petrol car meets the Scottish petrol test and is allowed in on emissions grounds.

V.9 is where the V5C records the Euro status. If it says Euro 4 on a petrol car, you should not be charged on emissions grounds. If you are charged anyway, the record the operator holds is out of line with DVLA, or the fuel has been read as diesel. The certificate of conformity is the document that corrects either mistake.

For a petrol car registered in 2005, proving Euro 4 is the whole game. The compulsory registration date has not yet arrived, so the year infers Euro 3. Only type approval evidence lifts it. That is the straddle TfL's after 2005 wording is built around.

A petrol car first registered in March 2005 can be Euro 4 if the type was approved on or after 1 January 2005, or Euro 3 if it was not. Imports add a second date: the UK plate date. A car type approved as Euro 4 in 2005 and first registered in the UK in 2007 is still Euro 4. Inferring from the UK year alone would still pass it, because 2007 is after 1 January 2006, but the certificate is what you send if V.9 is blank.

Light goods vans are asked for the same Euro 4 petrol and Euro 6 diesel pair in the English and Scottish schemes, but the dates on this page are not van introduction dates. Qualifying Euro 4 vans also have a separate vehicle tax concession window, which is a tax class rule, not a zone rule and not a passenger car date.