My car is a honda hr-v year 2000 4wd 1.6cc petrol. This car was not ULEZ compliant until recently.
As Transport for London only deems petrol cars with euro 4 standard as compliant, and my car is a 2000 model with a euro 3 standard, it automatically went into the non-compliance big sack. As I work just inside of London and need my car to get there, I was faced with the upheaval of replacing a perfectly working car for something else at considerable costs and hassle.
I then by chance discovered that all hr-v models from 2001 onwards (petrol) are all automatically deemed compliant and do not have to pay the charge. As my car has the exact same engine as those later models I decided to do some research and then I discovered that the models for years 1999 and 2000 should also be registered as ULEZ compliant by TFL as they are low polluting vehicles. Their NOx values are 0.04 g/km which is well below the ULEZ euro 4 threshold of 0.08 NOx g/km. That's nearly half of the maximum NOx permitted for compliance.
What I did to make it compliant and you will need to do if you want to do the same:
Email Honda europe and request a CERTIFICATE OF CONFORMITY for your vehicle. This is their email;
coc@honda-eu.com
You will be asked to fill in a form, scan or take a pic with your phone and send back to them. They will send you the certificate of conformity in a letter to the address you have specified in this form. The letter may take up to 2 weeks to arrive. In the emissions section of your certificate your NOx should have a value of 0.041 g/km
Then you have to register yourself and your car as a user with Transport for London through their page as this is requirement to contest the ULEZ status of your vehicle. You'll need to set up username, password and payment details so when you drive in the zones (congestion charge zone or ulez zone) you will be charged automatically. I had this set up a year ago or so to avoid a penalty charge in case I drove in and forgot to pay later etc, which is easier to do than it sounds. It takes a while to register but it's easy and you can de-register yourself after the process has finished if you wish.
Once you have received the certificate of conformity you have to go on to TFL's ULEZ page and find a section where you can say your car should be ULEZ exempt. This is the link;
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/compliance-registration/before-you-start
You will be asked to upload your V5 vehicle document and the Certificate of Conformity as evidence of your claim. Add that your vehicle's NOx emissions fall bellow the ULEZ euro 4 standard of NOx 0.08 g/km and that you kindly ask for it to be registered as compliant and exempt from the charge.
If the link fails, you can email Transport for London directly here; cclondon@cclondon.com
and explain that your petrol car, even though being a (1999 or 2000) model it is still compliant as its NOx emissions fall bellow the euro 4 standard of NOx 0.08 g/km. Remember to attach the V5 document of your car and certificate of conformity as your evidence for the claim.
Transport for London may take up to 10 working days to reply to your email, which in my case they did.
I got an email with a pdf attachement saying that my application had been successful and I did not have to pay the charge. I also checked in their own website checker by introducing my registration and voi-la! my car appeared as compliant and exempt from the charge. Big hooray!
A note of advice, your application may be rejected the first time by TFL saying that your car is listed as euro 3 and not euro 4 standard. If that is the case, just send email and politely request again that your car is registered as compliant based on its emissions and not its euro standard rating.
If your NOx emissions are below 0.08 g/km and you have a certificate from your manufacturer with those values, then you car shouldn't pay ULEZ.
I hope this can help anyone like it helped me. Good luck.
