The Madrid City Council has again postponed the full implementation of the Low Emission Zone (ZBE). Against all expectations, vehicles without an environmental label but registered in the capital will be able to continue circulating throughout 2026. The measure, announced by the delegate of Urbanism, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, extends for the second consecutive year the moratorium initially planned until December 2025.
The argument put forward by the Consistory is based on the “low impact” of these cars on air quality and mobility in the city. According to Carabante, the exception will affect between 14,000 and 15,000 vehicles, which will continue to have free access to almost the entire city, except for the Low Emission Zones of Special Protection, such as Madrid Central and Plaza Elíptica, where circulation is still forbidden to all cars without a label, whether they are registered or not.
A measure criticized by the opposition
The announcement has not taken long to receive harsh criticism from the opposition. From Más Madrid they accuse the government team of giving “a turn back” in the fight against pollution. “It is a joke,” said Councilwoman Esther Gómez, who criticized the use of a supposedly good air quality as an argument when Madrid does not meet the values required by European regulations for 2030.
The PSOE has also shown its rejection, focusing on the lack of measures to facilitate access to electric vehicles. Councilman Ignacio Benito has pointed out that the problem is not one of will, but of means: “Families who do not have an electric car is because they cannot afford it, not because they do not want to”. He also called for more recharging points, especially on public roads, recalling that 70% of cars in Madrid sleep on the street.
An increasingly diluted timetable
The original regulation, approved in 2021, established a progressive application of the ZBE, which should have reached its maximum restriction in 2025. However, the moratorium for registered vehicles was already a first step backwards. With this new postponement, the horizon of a city without polluting cars is once again distant.
Carabante defends that the decision seeks a balance between environmental sustainability and “social sustainability”. As he explained, the City Council will continue to promote aid for the renewal of vehicles, which already amount to 111 million euros destined to encourage the change towards less polluting models.
Meanwhile, the numbers of daily accesses to the capital (4.8 million, according to the City Council itself) and the data on urban pollution will continue to be closely monitored. And although Madrid’s environmental calendar is becoming more flexible, the challenge of meeting European requirements by 2030 remains intact.