Saint-Étienne ZFE 2026: Vans and Lorries Only, Not Cars
Zone à Faibles Emissions · France · Active since 2022
Source: official source · Verified: 2026-09-27
Saint-Étienne's ZFE covers only lorries and light commercial vans: since 1 January 2025 unclassified, Crit'Air 5 and Crit'Air 4 examples are barred, 24/7. Cars and motorcycles are not concerned.
Locally the zone is called Zone à Faibles Emissions Saint-Étienne (France) — that is the wording on the boundary signs, on the official portal and on any penalty notice, so it is the phrase to search for once you are there.
Next
- Check your own car against Saint-Étienne — enter your fuel and Euro class, get a yes or no in one step.
- Saint-Etienne has a zone too — the nearest one to Saint-Étienne, and the rules are not identical.
- If a fine arrives after you get home — who pays on a hire car, and what is actually enforceable across borders.
Practical answers for Saint-Étienne
- When is the Saint-Étienne zone active?
- 24/7 That means there is no free window — the restriction applies on Sundays and public holidays too.
- How much does it cost to drive into Saint-Étienne?
- EUR 5.11 for a foreign-registered car, EUR 3.85 on French plates (including postage) · Crit'Air vignette Get it wrong and the penalty is EUR 68 (cars, motorcycles, light commercial), EUR 135 (HGV, buses, coaches).
- Do I need to register or buy anything first?
- Crit'Air vignette Official portal.
- Who is exempt in Saint-Étienne?
- Crit'Air 1 and Zero vehicles and Emergency vehicles. Exemptions are usually not automatic — most require registering your number plate in advance.
Didn’t France abolish its low-emission zones?
No — the repeal never took effect. Parliament did vote in April 2026 to abolish France’s ZFEs, which is why so many guides and news reports say they are gone. The Conseil constitutionnel struck that article down on 21 May 2026 (décision n° 2026-903 DC), so the ZFE provisions of the code général des collectivités territoriales (articles L. 2213-4-1 and L. 2213-4-2) stayed on the books.
The zone in Saint-Étienne is therefore still in force and you still need a Crit'Air vignette on the windscreen. Turning up without one because you read that ZFEs were scrapped is the expensive version of this mistake — the penalty is EUR 68 (cars, motorcycles, light commercial), EUR 135 (HGV, buses, coaches).
One caveat most coverage misses: the article was annulled on procedure, not on its merits — the Council held it was a “cavalier législatif”, an amendment with no link to the bill it was attached to (Constitution, art. 45). Parliament can pass the same repeal again in a properly related bill, so this is settled for now rather than settled for good. Read the decision.
Saint-Étienne Zone à Faibles Emissions Map
The shaded area is the zone boundary as mapped in OpenStreetMap — zoom in to see which streets fall inside, and confirm the signs at the edge on arrival.
Requirements
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Exemptions
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Saint-Étienne Métropole states it plainly: “Les deux roues et les véhicules de particuliers ne sont pas concernés par les restrictions” (saint-etienne-metropole.fr). The ZFE targets poids lourds and light commercial vans — since 1 January 2025 the unclassified, Crit’Air 5 and Crit’Air 4 examples of those, all day every day. The national register confirms it: the car column for every Saint-Étienne perimeter is empty.
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Zone | ZFE-m (Zone à Faibles Emissions mobilité) |
| Applies to | Lorries and light commercial vans |
| Cars and motorcycles | Not concerned — no Crit’Air requirement |
| Active since | 31 January 2022; current step 1 January 2025 |
| Next step | 1 January 2027 — Crit’Air 3 vans and lorries added |
| Perimeter | 200 km², following the main road axes |
| Roads excluded | A47, A72, M201, N88 |
| Operating hours | 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year |
| Fine (vehicles concerned) | EUR 68 light commercial / EUR 135 heavy goods |
Saint-Étienne ZFE — who it actually stops
The scheme began on 31 January 2022 and has tightened in steps. In the national consolidated database each step is a separate record: the 2022 perimeter barred unclassified lorries and vans, the record running from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026 bars Crit’Air 4 and worse, and the record starting 1 January 2027 brings in Crit’Air 3. In all three, the column for private cars carries no value at all.
Who can drive in
- Any private car, whatever its Crit’Air class — including unclassified pre-1997 vehicles
- Any motorcycle or scooter, whatever its class
- Lorries and vans rated Crit’Air 3 or better, until the 2027 step moves the line to Crit’Air 2
- Emergency vehicles and Crit’Air 0/1 vehicles of any category
The perimeter
Since 1 January 2025 the zone spans roughly 200 km², drawn along the main road axes of the valley. The A47, A72, M201 and N88 are excluded, so a through-route on the motorway network stays outside the restriction even when the surrounding communes are inside it.
If you drive a van or lorry
Order the Crit’Air vignette at certificat-air.gouv.fr for EUR 5.11; allow about three weeks for delivery outside France. Enforcement is by spot checks and cameras, and the penalty follows the national scale: EUR 68 for a light commercial vehicle, EUR 135 for a heavy goods vehicle.
If you drive a car
Nothing to do. Do not buy a vignette for Saint-Étienne on the strength of the “ZFE” label — although you will need one if the same trip takes you into Lyon, 60 km north-east, where the car rule is real and strict.
Recent changes to this page
- Crit'Air sticker price corrected to EUR 5.11 for a foreign-registered car (EUR 3.108 certificate + EUR 2.00 postage, certificat-air.gouv.fr price service); EUR 3.85 applies only to French plates.
- Contradictions removed against Saint-Étienne Métropole and the national ZFE register: the key-facts table said "active since 2025" and "weekdays 08:00-20:00" while the body said 2022 and 24/7, and both listed car Euro thresholds the scheme does not impose. The zone applies to lorries and light commercial vehicles only ("Les deux roues et les véhicules de particuliers ne sont pas concernés par les restrictions"), 365 days a year over 200 km², with the Crit'Air 3 step dated 1 January 2027. Emission-class checkers removed and the EU cross-border claim deleted.
- Title, description and introduction rewritten from this page's own data (no shared template wording).
- Aligned the dates on this page with TyreMap zone data after it was re-verified against the official register.
- Page created — ZFE active since 2022, fine EUR 68 (cars), EUR 135 (lorries).
Part of the TyreMap Emission-Zone Dataset — 596 verified European emission zones, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.