Car emissions stickers now available - Germany

Anyone who is planning on driving to the inner city areas of Berlin, Dortmund, Hannover or Köln needs to have an emission sticker, you can get them at the TüV & some local garages.

The Umweltbundesamt (Federal Office of Environment) have also advised that, effective 01 March 2008, the Decals
will also be required in the following cities:
Ludwigsburg, Mannheim, Reutlingen, Schwaebisch Gmuend, Stuttgart and Tuebingen.
Munich plan to begin as soon as possible but with a start date of no later than 01 October 2008.

Vehicles with a model year of 1993 and newer receive a Green Decal (Emission Category 4).
However, those vehicles with a model year of 1992 and older receive no Decal unless converted to meet the
higher standards. Diesel vehicles have more restrictions.

I don't have a link to this info in English as it came from a work publication, but you can get more info from the ADAC website

Related topic: Munich plans ban on highly pollutive vehicles
Related topic: Emissions stickers for cars driving in Berlin

I got my Munich sticker today with the TÜV inspection (I don't think it was part of the TÜV, but he offered to get it for me now).

I had to get another green sticker the other day after re-registering the car. Not only have I paid twice for something not yet used, but it was even more of a bastard to get off than an Austrian Vignette, and given it's got your number plate on it, I don't see why.

There is some type of colour classification as I have a green one for one of our cars and yesterday got a yellow one for the bigger car. One is petrol the other is diesel if that is the difference, I didn't bother to ask...

Well with green you should be able to go anywhere, but the yellow is probably limited, here is a list of places with maps that will tell you where the restriced zones are & what classes are allowed in to the zones.

Umwlet zones by city

As far as I'm aware, currently all three colours will be allowed, only cars that don't have or can't get a badge are excluded.

There's some information on http://umwelt-plakette.de/ in English (of sorts), including the possibility to buy online for owners of foreign-registered cars. That's quite good, but it's a shame they've decided to rip people off at €30 a pop (€40 if you want your number typed instead of handwritten!), when it costs about €5 or less here.

To see what colour category your car falls into see http://www.feinstaubplakette.de/ (German)

For information in English about the requirements of many of the different European (including German) enviromental zones, see http://www.lowemissionzones.eu/
(Germany specific http://www.lowemissionzones.eu/content/view/45/61/lang,en/ )

I may have misread, but I think that is a private company doing the paperwork for you. I think foreigners can just turn up with their registration documents and get the decal - provided the car is new enough.

No, you're correct, but foreign residents (assuming they even know) are faced with a choice of turning up with their documents at a city of their choice, sometimes at an office within the low emissions zone, possibly with little English spoken or paying a private company between €25-35 (500-700% markup) admin fee. German residents can apply online to Stuttgart for the normal fee.

The private company is referred to on the official site, which whether intentionally or not implies endorsement.

Hi all!
I have just recieved my emisson sticker which cost me the princley some of 5 Euros. I copied an online form from the City of Koln, completed it, enclosed a copy of my V5 and a 5 Euro note. I got my yellow sticker back in a week.

I think that is pretty good service.

Dave

I ordered mine online via the KVR website in Munich. It cost the 5 EUR + 1 EUR handling and postage (paid by direct debit). It took 3 days to land in my post box.