Hello, Could you please provide the statistics of the total number of penalties issued to the TESLA vehicles between 1 October 2020 and 31 December 2020 with regard to: 1) Driving in ULEZ without paying an appropriate fee 2) Driving in Congestion Charge zone without paying an appropriate fee Please provide two numbers separately. Thanks

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Our ref: FOI-2084-2021/GH

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 17 January 2021 asking for information about Congestion Charge or ULEZ penalties issued to Tesla vehicles.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require.

Could you please provide the statistics of the total number of penalties issued to the TESLA vehicles between 1 October 2020 and 31 December 2020 with regard to:

1) Driving in ULEZ without paying an appropriate fee - 77

2) Driving in Congestion Charge zone without paying an appropriate fee – 3,130

Electric vehicles, including Teslas, are entitled to a 100% discount from the Congestion Charge as part of the Cleaner Vehicle discount. This is subject to registration with us and an annual renewal. If the vehicle is not registered with us and is used in the zone a penalty may be issued.

In respect of the ULEZ all electric vehicles, including Teslas, meet the required emissions standards, therefore the payment of the ULEZ charge is not required.

In order to establish whether a vehicle meets the ULEZ emissions standards we predominantly use the vehicle data held by the DVLA. In the vast majority of cases this allows us to establish whether a vehicle is compliant and whether the charge is payable.

We do not work of a live link to DVLA data but rather we operate our own compliance database which is refreshed with updated DVLA data every four weeks. This ensures that any changes to DVLA data, and therefore the compliance status of a vehicle, is updated regularly.

The predominant reason why the compliance status of a vehicle may change, is when a registration number is transferred from a non-compliant to a compliant vehicle. As our data is refreshed every four weeks there is a short timeframe in which the registration number on our database will be listed as non-complaint however the vehicle displaying the registration may be compliant. This can result in a small number of penalties being issued to compliant vehicles.

In instances when this occurs and a motorist highlights this to us the penalties are cancelled. The 77 PCNs issued to Tesla’s in this case have been cancelled.

If this is not the information you are looking for, please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation.

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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