How the check works, and its sources

The check answers one question: may this vehicle enter this city’s low-emission zone on this day? To do so it combines four things: the list of zones with their stages and liftings, the vehicle’s emission group, the exemptions in the ordinance, and the diesel bans of individual cities. Every rule and amount sits in a single file (params-2026.json), every zone in zonen.json, with the address of the official source and the reading date, 29 October 2026. No zone and no amount is written into the program code.

1. The list of zones

The basis is the Federal Environment Agency list, last changed on 26 August 2026: 35 active and 23 lifted zones, each with its state, the three stages (red, yellow, green) and, where relevant, the date it was lifted. We split joint zones such as the Ruhr area or Ludwigsburg and surroundings into their towns so you can search by destination: that gives 87 towns with a zone, plus 25 larger cities that are not on the list and therefore show as “no low-emission zone”. For cities with their own page we also read the city or state website; where it says something different from the list, the difference is stated in the text.

2. The emission group

The 35th BImSchV assigns every motor vehicle to one of four emission groups (Annex 2): group 2 gets the red, group 3 the yellow and group 4 the green sticker, group 1 none (section 3). The check by Euro norm follows the Federal Environment Ministry’s simplified table: diesels below Euro 1 get no sticker, Euro 1 with a retrofitted particle reduction system and Euro 2 get red, Euro 2 with a system and Euro 3 get yellow, Euro 3 with a system and everything from Euro 4 gets green. Petrol and gas vehicles with a regulated catalyst from Euro 1 are group 4, and so are vehicles without a combustion engine (Annex 2(3)). The check by date applies the presumption in section 6, which covers foreign-registered vehicles with no proof of their norm: diesel cars first registered from 1997 get red, from 2001 yellow, from 2006 green; heavy diesels from 1 October 1996, 2001 and 2006 respectively; petrol cars from 1993 green.

3. The key number, and why we do not ask for it

For a vehicle registered in Germany, the emission key number in registration certificate part I (field 14.1) decides, not the year of manufacture (section 5). The Federal Transport Ministry publishes the assignment of key numbers in the Verkehrsblatt; we found no complete official table that anyone can read freely. Rather than copy an unchecked third-party list, the check asks for fuel and Euro norm, which are also in the papers, and states with every result that the issuing office reads the key number. The City of Stuttgart mentions one special case: older petrol cars with a US catalyst and key numbers 01, 02 or 77 also get green (city page).

4. Exemptions

Annex 3 of the ordinance exempts eleven groups even without a sticker: mobile machinery, work machines, farm and forestry tractors, two- and three-wheeled motor vehicles, ambulances and marked doctors’ cars, vehicles of people with the disability marks aG, H or Bl, vehicles with special rights, certain military vehicles, civilian vehicles on Bundeswehr duty, classic cars with H or 07 plates and, new, vehicles with an e-plate. Number 11 was added by the ordinance of 25 September 2026; it came into force on 1 October 2026, the first day of the quarter after its publication on 30 September. The exemption check uses that date: before 1 October 2026 it shows no exemption for an e-plate. Exemption permits for individual vehicles are granted by the local authority (section 1(2)); they apply only there and are not part of any general answer.

5. Diesel bans

Some cities also ban older diesels, even with a green sticker. The Federal Environment Agency list names 3 cities as of 26 August 2026: Stuttgart (diesels up to Euro 4 across the city since 1 January 2019, up to Euro 5 in the small inner zone since 1 July 2020), Munich (diesels up to Euro 4 since 1 February 2023, deliveries and residents exempt) and Darmstadt (two street sections since 1 June 2019). The check reports these bans separately from the sticker, because they have their own signs and their own exemptions.

6. The fine

Driving despite a traffic ban to reduce harmful air pollution (signs 270.1 and 270.2) costs €100 under number 153 of the Fine Catalogue Ordinance. The points table in the Driving Licence Ordinance does not list number 153, so there is no penalty point in Flensburg. The Federal Environment Ministry’s page still quotes 80 euros; that is the former amount, and the catalogue is what applies.

Limits

A zone usually covers only part of a city; the check says whether a town has a zone, not whether a given street lies inside it. Sign 270.1 at the edge of the zone is what counts. The site does not cover zones in neighbouring countries: they follow their own rules and we have not checked them against official sources. The answer for a past date follows the stages on the list; earlier exemptions or transition periods of individual cities are not included.

Tests and updates

Every build checks more than twenty cases against the values read (number of zones, lifting dates, stages, assignment thresholds, diesel bans, the fine, date-dependent exemptions); a mismatch stops publication. We read the Federal Environment Agency list again at least monthly. Found an error? contact@umweltzonecheck.de.