How do I get an Ulez for London?

[kodax]

I will soon drive to London with my Norwegian Tesla and have tried applying for an Ulez, but got rejected three times.
In the last application I attached a picture of my Tesla, a screendump of the Norwegian page with the registration details, pictures I took of my Norwegian vehicle registration and a letter where I asked them to tell me what documents was missing in case of yet another rejection.
In the reply I got, it says:

We also need a full copy of the vehicle's Conformity Certificate. Alternatively you may wish to contact the vehicle manufacturer's homologation department. They will need to provide you with a letter signed by a named individual from the homologation department which contains the following information

- vehicle registration mark (VRM)
- vehicle identification number (VIN)
- euro standard the vehicle was manufactured to - Fuel Type
- Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) value
and
- Particulate matter (PM) value (if diesel)

If you receive confirmation of compliance from the manufacturer, you can upload your proof through an online enquiry form at tfl.gov.uk/ulez.

Seriously? Do they want me to document further that Teslas are electric? (It is allready stated in the document I sent them.)
"Conformity Certificate" - I am not importing the car, just staying in England for three nights...
"contact the vehicle manufacturer's homologation department" - Come on, does Tesla have a bunch of people writing and signing documents like this?
I have such an urge to give them a really angry response, but I suspect that will not help my case
English is after all not my mother tounge, so maybe I am missing something here?

 

[MrBadger]

Apologies for some of the jobs worth/non common sense people. Seems to be a common trait here that people work to a formula/script and anything that deviates causes them problems when use of half a brain cell would solve the problem.

Short of trying again and getting someone different, have you asked on the Euro part of the forum what fellow non UK drivers have done. Ive seen quite a few Euro cars on our roads so you can’t be the first who has come across this obstacle.

Also may be worth trying tfl (transport for London) on a different contact method and ask their advice. Reiterate that English is not your native language. They may have someone who can communicate with you in your native language and avoid any mid understanding.

You may already have the info that they need but just do not know what it is. Our V5 registration documents would probably be all we in UK would need so it is possible that they are looking for an equivalent from you - I would say it is up to them to translate it - again, it avoids any mis understanding.

 

[Rob R]

Outrageous but unfortunately typical in the UK. Do not assume goodwill or fair dealing from public offices in Britain.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Can't believe they will ever catch up with you if you do no paperwork at all. You might not want to take that as gospel though ...

All foreigners can use the QEII bridge without paying any tolls, because we are too lazy to build any means of collecting tolls from foreign vehicles. Something like £200 million a year in unpaid (foreign vehicle) fines that we just let happen ...

Same with the NHS ... help yourself ... apparently its far too expensive to bother to collect your money (despite the fact that everywhere else I travel in the world I need health insurance to be able to pay any medical cost whilst I am there ...)

 

[KennethS]

I assume the OP has checked to see if this recognises his car:

Check your vehicle

My cars (granted all are UK registrations) are listed as exempt without me having taken any steps to register them.

It seems to me the regulations don’t require a specific registration to be entitled to the exemption, just that the vehicle meet the emission standards. So the course of action of not worrying about it has merit. If by some chance you receive a penalty notice (highly unlikely) I would fight it at that time.

 

[volts]

My Swedish friend had a fine from ULEZ London after failing to be able to register a Swedish reg vehicle "vehicle type not recognised" - it sounds like a disaster of a process to get a foreign vehicle registered.

These types of zones are cropping up all over europe. The German TuV has a similar scheme for all German cities (UK Tesla's also need a green and white sticker). Every country seems to have it;s own way of doing this.

 

[ACarneiro]

Birmingham is also going to have one of these in the next few months...
I suppose it would be better if the loud, fume-belching buses were just banned, tbh...

 

[Tony Hoyle]

Manchester is talking about it.. but it's very weak - the 'ulez' still allows diesels. But even for that weakened version there's a petition to stop it..

 

[MrBadger]

I suppose it would be better if the loud, fume-belching buses were just banned, tbh...

Quite but bow would inner London bus companies get rid of their old stinkers if they could not pass deploy them on to other routes (no evidence of this other than 'new' liveried buses ending up on non inner London routes with old registrations)

 

[Fullerene]

Apologies @kodax best of luck, ludicrous bureaucracy - no idea how to sort this one out. Seems to be further evidence that things have not been thought through particularly well.

Apart from my own Reg (ancient banger - exempt..) I couldn't help but look up ULEZ vehicle checker "AMS1" Apprentice fans will be glad to see that

For top trump Fans

 

[m-i-l]

it would be better if the loud, fume-belching buses were just banned

There are a number of fully electric buses in London now (the BYD-ADL Enviro200EV). They're very nice, but few drivers seem to have got used to EV acceleration yet - my nearest stop is on a steepish hill, and the drivers must have always floored the accelerator at that point in fossil fuel buses to struggle up the hill, but now with the electric buses they often send standing passengers flying at that point (I nearly broke my arm once as a result).

 

[kodax]

I sent them this reply:

Hi,
Maybe there is a misunderstanding here. Norwegian is my native language, not English, so maybe I have not made myself understood.
I am visiting England/London with my Norwegian registered Tesla for three nights.
I have been told that when driving an all electric car (Tesla only makes all electric cars) in London, I should not pay any ULEZ fees, but I do need to aply for it.
I have already sent you a copy the Norwegian registration documents for the car.
As far as I understand your answer, you want me either to send you a Conformity Certificate ogra document signed by the manufacturer. The former is to my knowledge something that is used for importing cars. I am not importing the car, only driving it in England for three days. The latter, I also have difficulties understanding that you want be to get. I find it hard to belive that you expect the Tesla Company to write letters like that to every foreign electric car owner driving in London.
Maybe I have misunderstood the whole process, and do not need to apply for this to avoid taxes fro my electric car?

And got this answer:

Thank you for your enquiry received on 19 September 2019, regarding the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

To determine whether a vehicle is compliant with ULEZ requirements, a number of vehicle attributes are taken into consideration including the vehicle type, year of manufacture, date of registration as well as whether the emissions (NOx & PMs) are recorded. The ULEZ VRM Checker utilises data from a variety of sources including the DVLA, the VCA (Vehicle Certification Agency) and information sourced from vehicle manufacturers, supplemented on an ongoing basis by information provided to Transport for London (TfL) by owners / registered keepers of individual vehicles. The VRM Checker is updated on an ongoing basis as new information is provided to TfL.

TfL are also aware that many manufacturers produced vehicles prior to the Euro 6 standard becoming compulsory. These vehicles are known as early adopters and where information has been provided to TfL, then they are recorded as such on our database.

If you believe that any information provided by our checker is incorrect, on receipt of evidence of the vehicles Euro standard, we would investigate further and where necessary amend our records to reflect the correct status of your vehicle.

In order to investigate compliance status of your vehicle we advise you to provide us with vehicle registration document (V5C) that contains the Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) value and Particulate matter (PM) value (if diesel), we can confirm the compliance status of your vehicle. Please check that the NOx and if applicable the PM value is recorded on the V5c, usually these are detailed in sections V.3 and V.5 respectively.

If these values are not recorded on the V5c you will need to provide a copy of the vehicle's Conformity Certificate which you can obtain from the vehicle manufacturer. Alternatively you may wish to contact the vehicle manufacturer's homologation department. They will need to provide you with a letter signed by a named individual from the homologation department which contains the following information (a letter from customer services or a dealer will not be accepted):

- Vehicle registration mark (VRM)
- Vehicle identification number (VIN)
- Euro standard the vehicle was manufactured to - Fuel Type
- Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) value
and
- Particulate matter (PM) value (if diesel).

And I now replyed this:

This is, as I said, a Tesla. Tesla only makes pure electric cars. There is no particles of any kind being emitted from a pure electric car, as there is no internal combustion engine.
You ask me for a VC5. To my knowledge, that is a document being submittet for English registrated cars. As I said, this car is registrated in Norway, and thus have a Norwegian registration card. I uploaded that in my application.
To have people like me, applying for an ULEZ, asking the manufacturer of electric cars to provide documents to state that the car is electric, really sound like you are joking with me.
I guess it is not ment for foreign cars to apply for this. If so, I wish you could have informed me about this at once.

Man, this is stupid...

 

[MrBadger]

Welcome to GB, have a nice day

May be worth sending back you VIN to them as this is all the proof that they will need. Also your Norwegian number plate to match it too. Then a photo.

Hopefully you will then get someone with a bit of an idea what is going on. Suggest you also cc [email protected] who is fellow Tesla owner and UK Secretary of State for Transport since 2019.

 

[Mr Miserable]

To register a non-UK registered car for London ULEZ
Go to this webpage and register for an account and then enter the required details.

Hope this helps

 

[MrBadger]

That service looks a bitt suss to me. Sounds a bit like one of the third party companies who charge for doing what is otherwise free or low cost, like charging you £70 to renew a £14/£24 drivers license.

 

[Mr Miserable]

I can understand that.
So go to this website and enter your details - be sure to select non-UK as country of registration.
That will take you to another page and buried in there is the link that I submitted earlier!

 

[MrBadger]

So why couldn't Tfl just have said that in their email!

 

[Mr Miserable]

So why couldn't Tfl just have said that in their email!

Tfl isn't as good as Tesla at customer service...

 

[.jg.]

Is your car's Norwegian registration document in an EU compatible format i.e. with numbered fields?
If so and the field P.3, corresponding to "Fuel Type" has the value "Electric", you should be able to submit that to TFL website.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

If, by their own volition, they can get enough info to fine you afterwards just from your number plate, then they can get enough to know you're exempt.

or, they can't do the former, so don't bother registering.