The vote comes after City Hall said last November that space taken up by cars in the French capital had fallen thanks to its “determined action” but that the average size and weight of cars had gone up.

The vote, which takes place on Sunday, February 4th, will be the second city-wide referendum on urban matters, after residents voted to ban rental e-scooters from the capital last April.

If the plan is approved, residents can expect rapid action. Rented electric scooters vanished from Paris streets just a few months after the vote, in September.

Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), sometimes known as 4x4s, can weigh 2,700 kilos or more, around a third more than regular automobiles.

“They’re accident-prone, heavy, bulky and polluting,” the mayor’s office said, and had been identified as “the cause of many problems in the public space”.

As well as having higher emissions levels, safety concerns have also been raised about SUVs due to the higher risk of injury to a pedestrian or cyclist in case of a collision.

 

 

 

 

 

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The French government already imposes extra taxes on vehicles that weigh over 1.6 tonnes, which includes most medium and large SUVs.

If the vote goes in favour of the fee hike, it would not concern SUV owners with residential parking permits issued by the city.

The mayor’s office said it hoped to send “a message” to auto companies inciting them to stop “their race to gigantism that is unsuitable to quality of life in the city”.

This, it said, would “allow an improved sharing of public spaces in favour of clean mobility, streets with schools and pedestrians”.

SUVs accounted for 49 percent of new passenger car sales in the European Union last year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

The French city of Lyon is also introducing extra charges for parking for SUVs. 

In April, Parisians voted overwhelmingly to banish for-hire electric scooters from the streets of the French capital. Turnout for the referendum was 100,000, representing just under 7.5 percent of the capital’s registered voters.