The Brussels Environment Council is calling on the region to adopt “a coherent strategy to reduce the weight of passenger cars gradually.” According to the Council, the weight of new passenger cars has increased by about 50% over the past 20 years. In 2023, more than half of new registrations in Brussels were SUVs, with an average weight of 1,681 kilograms.<\/p>\n
Reducing the average weight of passenger cars should yield benefits for the climate, air quality, traffic safety, public space, and public finances, according to the Council.<\/p>\n
In its opinion, the Council describes the trend as “all the more concerning given that the regional climate targets require a rapid reduction in transport-related emissions, which currently account for about a quarter of the Region’s direct greenhouse gas emissions.”<\/p>\n
In addition, there is also an impact on road safety – particularly for vulnerable road users – and on health, with increased emissions of particulate matter due to wear and tear on tires, brakes, and the road surface.<\/p>\n
The Environmental Council, therefore, recommends a comprehensive package of measures to reverse this trend. The proposed measures include, for example, adjusting parking rates based on vehicle weight, reforming vehicle taxes to take vehicle weight into account more, and even a measure to gradually restrict the traffic of the heaviest vehicles within the regional territory.<\/p>\n
This would then be linked to a future “Light and Safe” zone, or LISA for short, like the current LEZ for polluting vehicles. To be clear: the LISA zone is already included in the Government Policy Statement of the current Brussels administration, but the concrete details, threshold values, and exceptions have yet to be determined.<\/p>\n
“The goal is not to penalize essential travel, but to gradually steer choices toward vehicles that are better suited to the urban context of Brussels,” the Council stated in its opinion. Accompanying measures could also be introduced for specific groups. At the same time, the Council views the corporate vehicle fleet as “a priority area for action.”<\/p>\n
European type-approval regulations set the maximum weight of a new passenger car. Still, the Brussels Region does have its own tools to keep them off public roads or make them more expensive, such as the road tax and the vehicle registration tax – both of which fall under regional jurisdiction – or through parking policies.<\/p>\n
In early June, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that China, too, aims to reverse the trend toward ever-larger and wider EVs, following years in which larger batteries and the growing demand for space and features have made passenger cars significantly larger and heavier – call it car obesity.<\/p>\n
Many popular SUVs are now approaching or even exceeding 2 meters in width, putting pressure on existing infrastructure such as parking spaces and road lanes.<\/p>\n
Since January, strict energy consumption regulations for EVs have also been in effect in China. For example, EVs weighing 2,000 kg are limited to consuming only 15 kWh per 100 km. Models that do not meet the standard must be technically modified; otherwise, they cannot remain on the market as new models.<\/p>\n
In general, Paris and the French national government are leading the way with tax measures based on vehicle weight. Since October 2024, parking rates in Paris have tripled for “heavy, polluting, and large vehicles.”<\/p>\n
This applies to internal combustion and hybrid vehicles weighing 1,600 kg or more, as well as EVs weighing 2 tons or more. Lyon has been implementing a similar measure since June 2024, and Grenoble since March 2024.<\/p>\n
France also has a “malus masse”: a tax levied at registration on new cars weighing over 1,500 kg, but EVs are exempt from the weight tax. Norway has also added a weight component to the registration tax for cars, including EVs, since 2023. The heavier the car, the higher the tax. However, a direct traffic restriction based on vehicle weight has not yet been implemented anywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Brussels Environment Council is calling on the region to adopt “a coherent strategy to reduce the weight of passenger cars gradually.” According to the Council, the weight of new passenger cars has increased by about 50% over the past 20 years. In 2023, more than half of new registrations in Brussels were SUVs, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":187955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[77170,29,25,7,31,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-belgium","category-environment","category-legislation","category-mobility","category-road-safety","category-top-stories-today"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?fit=2560%2C1376&ssl=1",2560,1376,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?fit=300%2C161&ssl=1",300,161,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?fit=640%2C344&ssl=1",640,344,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?fit=640%2C344&ssl=1",640,344,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?fit=1536%2C826&ssl=1",1536,826,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?fit=2048%2C1101&ssl=1",2048,1101,true],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?fit=18%2C10&ssl=1",18,10,true],"related-thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1",640,480,true],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1",400,400,true],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,true],"mailchimp":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?fit=560%2C301&ssl=1",560,301,true],"unipress-phone":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=640%2C100&ssl=1",640,100,true],"unipress-tablet":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=1536%2C240&ssl=1",1536,240,true],"unipress-tablet-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=1536%2C180&ssl=1",1536,180,true],"unipress-tablet-landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=2048%2C180&ssl=1",2048,180,true],"unipress-smartphone":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C168&ssl=1",1080,168,true],"unipress-wide-screen":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled77-6-scaled.png?resize=2560%2C180&ssl=1",2560,180,true]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"
The Brussels Environment Council is calling on the region to adopt “a coherent strategy to reduce the weight of passenger cars gradually.” According to the Council, the weight of new passenger cars has increased by about 50% over the past 20 years. In 2023, more than half of new registrations in Brussels were SUVs, with an average weight of 1,681 kilograms. Reducing the average weight of passenger cars should yield benefits for the climate, air quality, traffic safety, public space, and public finances, according to the Council. Impact on greenhouse gas emissions In its opinion, the Council describes the trend…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"Belgium<\/a>, Environment<\/a>, Legislation<\/a>, Mobility<\/a>, Road safety<\/a>, Top Stories Today<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"Luc Joris","url":"https:\/\/newmobility.news\/en\/author\/belga-5\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","yoast_head":"\n