H license plates are exempted from the driving ban in the environmental zone
The older the vehicle, the smaller the chance of meeting emissions standards. Moreover, the many technical innovations in the automotive industry, which result from increased environmental awareness built into the new generation of cars coming onto the market, widen the gap between older and current engineering technology. Retooling or refitting is not possible in most cases. When legislators enact regulations that limit the operation of vehicles not meeting current standards, then classic cars are automatically affected by this. In connection with the establishment of environmental zones in accordance with the EU air quality guidelines, 20 German cities would have had to ban old-timers from driving in these zones. The VDA found this measure to be excessive, since the number of old-timers in the entire vehicle population is marginal and the yearly mileage involved in the overall emission of fine particles is very low. The individual exceptions in the municipalities proposed by legislators were also found not to meet the needs of classic car owners, since this would have meant an unclear patchwork of individual measures. Together with the ADAC and ZDK, the VDA succeeded in obtaining a uniform, federal exception to the law for old-timers. In a meeting of the Federal Council, a corresponding plenary motion was made by the Hessian minister president and decided in favor of the classic car owners. With the enactment of the "first ordinance for emending the regulation of identifying motor vehicles with a small share of the pollutant load" on December 8, 2007, all old-timers (according to §2 No. 22 of the Vehicle Registration Law) with an H license plate according to §9 section 1 or a red 07 license plate according to §17 of the Vehicle Registration Law are generally exempted from the driving ban in environmental zones enacted on Jan. 1, 2008.
