Paris residents vote for hefty SUV parking price in referendum

Paris voters have backed a proposal from the capital's mayor Anne Hidalgo to triple parking charges on hefty SUV-style cars, according to official results from city hall.

Paris residents voted 54.55 percent in favour of charging cars weighing 1.6 tonnes or more $19.50 per hour for parking in the city centre, or $13 further out.

But only 78,000, or 5.7 percent, of the 1.3M eligible voters bothered to vote at the 39 voting stations set up around the French capital.

Fully electric cars will have to top two tonnes to be affected, while people living or working in Paris, taxi drivers, tradespeople, health workers and people with disabilities will all be exempt.

'An aberration'

Environmental group WWF has dubbed SUVs an "aberration", saying they burn 15 percent more fuel than a classic coupe and cost more to build and purchase.

City hall has further pointed to safety concerns about taller, heavier SUVs, which it says are "twice as deadly for pedestrians as a standard car" in an accident.

The vehicles are also singled out for taking up more public space whether on the road or while parked than others.

France's Environment Minister Christophe Bechu told broadcaster RTL the SUV surcharge amounted to "a kind of punitive environmentalism" even if drivers should "opt for lighter vehicles".