Environmental Car Sticker in Spain

Environmental Car Sticker in Spain

In 2023, environmental zones are already fully in place in Spain. They cover the busy centers of large cities. To enter these zones, you need a sticker on your car's windshield. There are two kinds of environmental zones:

• Low-emission zone - ZBE (Zona de Bajas Emisiones) / LEZ (low emission zone) (in 2023 in Madrid and Barcelona)
• Zero-emission zone - ACCE (Area Central Cero Emisiones) / ZEZ (zero emission zone) (in 2023 only in Madrid)

What types of Distintivo Ambiental eco stickers are there?

The rules and standards are set by the DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico, the national traffic authority): A, B, C, Eco and 0 (zero) + a color (yellow, green, blue) classify a vehicle by its emissions, its registration date and its environmental class ("Euro").

• A - no sticker is issued; it covers all cars that do not fall into the other 4 categories.
• B (yellow) - petrol cars of class EURO 3 and diesel cars of classes EURO 4 and 5.
• C (green) - petrol cars of classes EURO 4, 5 or 6 and diesel cars of class EURO 6.
• Eco (blue-green) - hybrid cars that can switch to electric power (range of up to 40 km). Petrol cars of classes EURO 4, 5 or 6 and diesel cars of class EURO 6.
• 0 (blue) - battery-electric cars, plug-in hybrids with an electric range of more than 40 km, and extended-range electric cars that use the combustion engine as a generator for zero-emission driving.

Who needs environmental stickers in Spain?

Formally, these stickers are only required for cars with Spanish registration. Cars with foreign plates cannot get the sticker, but is it wise to ignore the rules? Madrid has no online registration, so all you need is the sticker, and as a result it is not recommended to be in the city center without one, even in a car with foreign plates, especially if the car qualifies in terms of emissions. In Barcelona the sticker is not mandatory yet, and there is online registration of vehicles on the website https://zberegistre.ambmobilitat.cat/en/VehiclesEstrangers. Registration through the site is not instant and apparently takes 15 days. But from personal experience: I spent 3 months in Barcelona with no sticker and no registration, on Ukrainian plates, and nobody even asked about it.

How to get an eco sticker for your car

The easiest way is to buy the sticker at any Correos post office. The sticker costs 6 euros. You will need to show the Spanish vehicle registration document (Matrícula automóviles). If you have just re-registered your car and received new plates from the DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico), go to the post office for the sticker no sooner than a week later. Before that, the new plate will not be in the system yet.

Where to put the eco sticker

It goes in the lower right corner of the car's windshield.