Driving Abroad

General guidance

The government/EU supported websites below give guidance about driving abroad and should be consulted before travel:

UK Government: www.gov.uk/driving-abroad

Information about restrictions for vehicles Clean Air Zones, Low Emission Zones, Congestion Charging and Urban Traffic Restrictions in Europe: https://urbanaccessregulations.eu/

Driving in France: Some cities ban all vehicles that do not meet the air quality restrictions - see https://urbanaccessregulations.eu/. There are no exemptions for historic vehicles (including those registered in France, the UK and EU). Compliant vehicles must display an emission disc (see lower down this page for more information on France). The official Crit'Air government website is here (for buying the emission discs) - beware of other sites charging inflated prices: https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/

Transporting a vehicle or motorcycle abroad - we recommend the advice issued by the National Motorcycle Council (NMC), developed in conjunction with the UK Cabinet Office. See 'NMC General Advice for moving motorcycles across the European Union border with the United Kingdom V2' at this link: https://www.uknmc.org/downloads
We thank the NMC for the above information and link

For Towing A Trailer (with a vehicle onboard) overseas and 'Carnet' forms, please see here

MoT requirements for 'Historic Vehicles'

Some time ago we sought confirmation from the Department for Transport, that the MOT exempt status of historic vehicles (HVs) would be accepted on the continent if owners took them overseas (see FBHVC News No. 4, 2021). To date we have not received a departmental response, even after hasteners.

Our considered view is that in law the visited country should accept the HV status of the vehicle and not demand evidence of testing. We cannot see any reason why that position would have changed and we have received no anecdotal evidence to suggest there is a problem.

However, we also considered that a voluntary test would be a wise precaution for two principal reasons. The first is to provide a degree of reassurance that the vehicle is fit for the journey and has no obvious issues. The second is that in the event of an accident, there is some supporting evidence that the car had recently been found roadworthy by an independent source.

Germany

For anyone travelling to or through Germany we refer you to the downloadable document at the bottom of this page.

We are very grateful to the ADAC, the FIVA ANF for Germany, for their support in explaining the required process for historic vehicles over 30 years old travelling through their low-emission zones.

British enthusiasts should ensure they carry a copy of their V5C indicating the age of their vehicle and when parking in a low-emission zone they should also display on the inside of their windscreen, or other visible place, a copy of their V5C which shows date of first registration and [taxation class] Historic Vehicle and therefore proves an age of 30 years or more.

France

Driving in France
Some towns and cities ban all vehicles that do not meet the air quality restrictions. There are no exemptions for historic vehicles including those registered in France, the UK and EU.
There are exemptions in each of the following cities/metropolis which are : Grenoble, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Paris, Lyon, Marseille Reims, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nice, Saint-Etienne, Clermont-Ferrand for vehicles holding a Certificat d'Immatriculation Collection which takes the form of an emission disc.
Please note the reference to Paris refers to “Le Grand Paris”; effectively the 'greater Paris' area.

A Certificat d'Immatriculation was previously known as a Carte grise de Collection.
This emission disc can be obtained for vehicles satisfying the European/French definition of a Historic Vehicle which is more than 30 years old, not used for daily or commercial purposes and not significantly modified. Compliant vehicles must display an emission disc.

In order to purchase an emission disc contact the official Crit'Air government website here: https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/ Beware of other websites which charge inflated prices.

The French Federation (FFVE) is still trying to obtain a specific Crit'Air disc for historic vehicles from the Government. At this point, there is no way to visually identify a historic vehicle. FFVE does not know whether such a specific disc will also become available to foreign registered cars, especially the ones not easily identifiable even those displaying Belgian ‘O plates’ or the German ‘H plates’. The Federation does not believe that foreign historic vehicles have been fined so far for not displaying Crit'Air discs.

Note:
Crit’Air regulations only apply on week days from 08:00 to 20:00, week-ends are not affected.
FBHVC gratefully acknowledges the assistance of colleagues in the FFVE for their assistance in preparing this material.

France section updated: 12 September 2024

HINT: To translate non-English websites, use Google Chrome as your web browser. Go into the 'preferences' or 'settings' menu in Chrome and select 'Languages'. This opens a new page, on which you should select 'Google Translate' and then turn the option button to 'on'. Now, when you browse a non-English website, a pop-up window will ask if you would like the website translated - click 'yes'.