Driving in Nantes: Low emission zone

Nantes, France · Low emission zone

Official name Zone à Faibles Émissions (ZFE) de Nantes Métropole

Not in force in Nantes right nowTuesday, 13 October 2026 at 11:03 · Europe/Paris

Starts Tuesday, 13 October 2026 at 16:00 local time.

Whether the zone reaches you depends on the vehicle's first registration date, which this timetable does not check. A car registered from 1997 onwards is unaffected at every hour.

Public holidays are excepted by the publisher, and France's holiday calendar is not held in this record, so a verdict on a public holiday is not given.

Operating times only, read from the source below. It does not check your vehicle.

What applies

Nantes has the mildest low emission zone in France and the only one that is not on all the time. It covers everything inside the périphérique, it bans only vehicles too old to be given a Crit'Air sticker at all, and it applies only at weekday peak hours — 07:00 to 09:00 and 16:00 to 19:00, Monday to Friday, public holidays excepted. A car first registered from January 1997 onwards is unaffected at any hour.

Source: Nantes Métropole, read 2026-09-11
Daily charge

There is no charge and no day pass. A vehicle is either classifiable and may enter at any hour, or it is not and must stay out at peak times.

When it operates

Weekdays only, 07:00–09:00 and 16:00–19:00, Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. Outside those windows — evenings, nights, weekends and holidays — the zone does not restrict anyone.

Source: Nantes Métropole, read 2026-09-11
Area covered

Everything inside the Nantes périphérique.

Source: Nantes Métropole, read 2026-09-11
We have not checked for a map yet
The national ZFE register carries a polygon for this zone under an open licence. It has not been put through the D-043 membership test yet, and Nantes states its perimeter as a road — everything inside the périphérique — rather than as a list of communes, so the test needs designing before it can be run.
Petrol standard

Only unclassifiable vehicles are banned, and for cars that means first registered before 1 January 1997 — over 28 years old on 1 January 2025. Light commercial vehicles: before 1 October 1997. Any car new enough to receive a Crit'Air sticker, of any class, may enter at any hour.

Source: Nantes Métropole, read 2026-09-11
Diesel standard

Nantes does not split the rule by fuel. What decides access is whether the vehicle can be given a Crit'Air sticker at all, which is a function of its first registration date rather than of petrol or diesel. The dates are recorded under the petrol standard.

Penalty if you do not comply

The Nantes Métropole page read on 2026-09-11 does not state a fine. The amount is set nationally. Not estimated here.

How to comply
  • Check the first registration date, not the Crit'Air number. Only vehicles too old to be classified are banned: cars from before 1 January 1997, light commercial vehicles from before 1 October 1997, heavy goods vehicles from before 1 October 2001.
  • If your vehicle is affected, the restriction only bites 07:00–09:00 and 16:00–19:00 on weekdays. Travelling outside those windows is compliant, and so is any travel on a public holiday.
  • A Crit'Air sticker is required in France to drive in a low emission zone, and also whenever the prefect declares differentiated traffic during a pollution episode.
  • National automatic exemptions cover general-interest vehicles, defence ministry vehicles, holders of the carte mobilité inclusion with the disabled-parking mention, and temporarily public transport vehicles.
  • Nantes Métropole grants further local exemptions, including for owners of a banned vehicle who can show they have bought a replacement.
Source: Nantes Métropole, read 2026-09-11

Sources

Next scheduled re-check: 2026-12-10.

Before you set off

France also has a national requirement

This is owed on the country's roads, not inside this scheme. What France asks, with the source

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