The Ruhr area of Nordrhein-Westfalen has a single LEZ covering 820 km², covering the towns/cities of:  Bochum, Bottrop, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Gladbeck, Herne, Herten, Mühlheim, Oberhausen, and Recklinghausen.

There are also single LEZs in Nordrhein-Westfalen, in the cities of Aachen, Bonn, Dinslaken, Düsseldorf, Eschweiler, Hagen, Köln, Krefeld, Langenfeld, Mönchengladbach, Münster, Neuss, Remscheid, Siegen, Wuppertal and Overath.

In the Ruhr there are recommended lorry routes.

* From January 2013
- Diesel Euro 3(PM), Petrol Euro 1 / Yellow Sticker

* From July 2014
- Diesel Euro 4(PM), Euro 5(PM), Euro 6(PM) and Petrol Euro 1 / Green Sticker

All diesel vehicles, and petrol vehicles without a closed loop catalytic converter (Euro 1 or equivalent).
All vehicles must have a sticker - see National Scheme

For Herten:


There is an overview and map of all 13 LEZ in the Ruhr, here
From January 2012 there is a single Rhur LEZ:

Key: Green area=LEZ, grey lines = exempted motorways, blue area=air quality management area

A sticker must be bought before driving into the zone and displayed in the windscreen - see National Scheme. This sticker is then valid for all LEZs in Germany.
Proof of emissions standard (given on German vehicle papers) is needed to purchase the sticker. Germany also accepts the stickers from Czech Republic.

Buying German LEZ stickers
Stickers for German and foreign vehicles can be purchased from the vehicle registration authorities, authorised local garages, vehicle test organisations like TÜV, DEKRA, or some websites.

LEZ city authorities and other cities usually sell LEZ stickers. In person from city offices they cost €5, online they can cost more, and if they need to be posted abroad it can sometimes add a little to the cost. Buy German LEZ stickers from Berlin city, in English or German (cost 6€), and the sticker is posted to you.

Stickers can also be bought online in Deutsch, Česky, Francis, English, Italiano, Polki, Türkçe from TÜV-SÜD. Cost is and is posted to you. €9.90 from TÜV-NORD if the vehicle is registered in Germany, €17.50 if the vehicle is not registered in Germany.

Please note:
Please allow enough time for the sticker to reach you. At times of high demand to foreign addresses it can take up to a few weeks.
Please also note, for the lowest cost stickers, please buy stickers from the official sources linked to on this website. There are both fake sites and sites that charge up to 5 times as much as the official websites.

Yes.
Foreign vehicles are also enforced and are required to buy a sticker. Foreign vehicles emissions are taken primarily by vehicle age, as show in in this table.

Yes

German vehicles need to have a particulate trap certified on behalf of the German government. Local garages can advise on which filters should be used and this page allows you to find out what particulate filter your German registered vehicle can use - now for heavy as well as light duty vehicles. See also our retrofitting section.

Permanent, 365 days a year.

Manual enforcement by police of sticker in the windscreen. Even if the vehicle meets the emissions standard, if there is no sticker in the windscreen, the vehicle is illegal in the zone.

The penalty for entering a LEZ in Germany without the sticker required is 80 € plus an administrative fee that varies from city to city.

 

A National Framework sets out the Emissions Classes and main rules that can be used by cities for LEZs in Germany. The cities or regions then decide whether, where and when to do a LEZ, and what emissions standards will be required.
Windscreen stickers (plakette) show the vehicle Euro standard. To enter the LEZ, the vehicle must have the sticker required by the LEZ standard (usually Green Sticker). See below for the different windscreen stickers.
 

Emissions class	1	2	3	4
Sticker	No Sticker
Requirement for diesel vehicles	Euro 1 or worse	Euro 2 or Euro1 with particulate filter	Euro 3 or Euro 2 with particulate filter	Euro 4, Euro 5, Euro 6 or Euro 3 with particulate filter
Requirement for petrol vehicles	Without a catalytic converter			Euro 1 or better pre Euro 1 with a catalytic converter fitted

 

 

For foreign vehicles without a Euro standard on the vehicle papers, the following table is valid.

 

Euro standard	Emissions Group	Vehicle first registered (light duty)	Vehicle first registered (lorry duty)	Sticker
		Diesel
Euro 1 or older	1	before 01.01.1997	before 01.10.1996	None
Euro 2	2	01.01.1997 to 31.12.2000	01.10.1996 to 30.09.2001	Red
Euro 3	3	01.01.2001 to 31.12.2005	01.10.2001 to 30.09.2006	Yellow
Euro 4 or better	4	from 01.01.2006	from 01.10.2006	Green
		Petrol and Gas
pre Euro 1 (without Catalyst)	1	before 01.01.1993		None
Euro 1 und better	4	from 01.01.1993		Green

Electric vehicles without a combustion engine get a Green Sticker.

Stickers similar to those used in Germany, and mutually accepted, exist also in the Czech Republic.

Germany low emission zone exemptions
Nordrhein-Westfalen exemptions

Umweltzone

Germany website
Nordrhein Westfalia
Suggested Lorry Routes Municipalities in the Ruhr area