Cars with a C label: should you be worried if you have one?

We don’t want to cause panic: I myself have a car with a C label and I’m quite relaxed about it. As you know, the introduction of the environmental badges from the Spanish Directorate-General for Traffic marked a before and after for the automotive industry. A few hours ago we told you that since May 1st, cars without an environmental label will not be allowed to drive inside the M-30, but don’t worry: cars with a C label still have plenty of time.

Cars with a C label are a long way from vehicles without a label, or what are now called cars with an A label. The restrictions will first hit cars with B badges, so within reason, you won’t have to worry in the coming years. Cars with a C label sit in a comfortable position between ZERO and B.

These are the reasons you might start to worry

If you don’t live in urban areas of a certain size, these minor inconveniences shouldn’t affect you. For now, you can keep driving calmly throughout Spain. The first inconvenience concerns parking: if you want to enter a Low Emission Zone, ZBE, you will have to look for a space in a paid car park, whether public or private.

In the Regulated Parking Zones, SER, you can park without any problem and you will get a 10% discount on the standard rate. The truth is that from 2023 onwards, Low Emission Zones could extend to municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, so owning a car with a C label could start to become a small problem.

In these zones, models with a ZERO and ECO label will have priority, although it will depend on the extent and the restrictions whether cars with a C label will be allowed to drive inside these future municipal low emission zones. As you can see, there is no reason to panic: the first to be affected will be vehicles without a label, which are already facing the first restrictions, followed by cars with a B label. So if you have a car with a C label, you shouldn’t worry, at least for now.