Boris planning war on diesel car drivers – London Mayor wants drivers of diesel cars to pay more

London Mayor Boris Johnson wants to charge drivers of diesel cars more to use the London congestion zone and increase their road tax.

We’ve long banged on about the nonsense of basing the cost of motoring on the Co2 emissions of cars, and it seems the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, also realises that Co2-based taxation has led to a real pollution problem.

As we reported as far back as 2010, petrol cars – certainly before the introduction of Euro 6 emissions recently – are far cleaner than diesel cars when it comes to the sort of stuff that really matters – NoX and particulates.

And the problem has been exacerbated by basing car taxation on Co2 emissions as lower Co2 levels have been much easier for car makers to achieve on diesel engines, which is why diesel-engined cars now account for around 50 per cent of all cars sold in the UK.

But the downside is that those low Co2 emission diesel cars are busy pumping pollution in to our cities, all in the name of reducing Co2.

But instead of changing car taxation to a system based on NoX and particulates – which is the sensible thing to do – Boris wants to charge owners of pre-Euro 6 diesel cars (and owners of petrol cars made before 2006) an extra £10 a day to come in to London from 2020.

Boris is also planning to lobby the Chancellor to increase road tax for pre-Euro 6 diesel cars to make them pay more for being polluting.

And all because we were told by out legislators that diesel was the way to go to stop climate change.