In January 2026, something quietly changed in London. Electric cars — the ones that for years slipped through the Congestion Charge zone with a clean conscience and a government subsidy — started paying like everyone else. £15 a day. Every crossing. No exceptions.
Electric motorcycles? Still exempt.
If you commute into central London, the maths just shifted. And if you've been watching the DAB 1 from a distance — admiring the design, convincing yourself it's an indulgence — this might be the moment it stops looking like a luxury and starts looking like the obvious call.
What Changed With the Congestion Charge
For years, fully electric vehicles benefited from a 100% discount on London's Congestion Charge. That exemption was removed at the end of 2025. Transport for London cited funding pressures — the same pressures that have pushed the daily charge upward year after year.
The result is straightforward: a Tesla Model 3, a Volvo XC40 Recharge, a Polestar 2 — every one of them now pays £15 every time it enters the zone. Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm. Weekends until midnight. There is no green badge exception anymore.
Motorcycles — petrol or electric — have always sat outside this charge. That has not changed. An electric motorcycle like the DAB 1 crosses the zone with zero daily levy, zero ULEZ exposure, and zero compromise on where it can go next as the zone boundaries expand.
The quiet irony is that the cars which sold themselves as the sustainable, cost-conscious choice have become the most expensive way to commute through central London. The electric motorcycle, long dismissed as a niche option, is now the financially rational one.
The Commute: Mayfair to Shoreditch
Let's put numbers to it.
You work in Shoreditch. You live in Mayfair. It's 4.5 miles door to door — entirely through the Congestion Charge zone. You're not the kind of person who squeezes onto the Central line at Bank in a suit. You're not ordering an Uber every morning and watching a 2011 Toyota Prius inch through Aldgate. You want something better.
You have three serious options. Here is what each one actually costs over a year.
Option A — The Volvo XC40 Recharge (The Car You Thought Was Smart)
Monthly lease: £550
Annual lease: £6,600
Congestion Charge, 250 working days × £15: £3,750
Central London parking (EC1/EC2 average): £180/month = £2,160
Insurance: ~£1,200
Annual total: £13,710
That figure used to be closer to £10,000 when the EV exemption still applied. The January 2026 change added £3,750 to the yearly cost of driving an electric car into central London. That is not a rounding error. That is a first-class return to Tokyo.
Option B — Daily Uber
Average fare Mayfair to Shoreditch: £28–34 each way
Round trip: £60/day (conservative estimate)
250 working days: £15,000/year
And that is before surge pricing, before sitting motionless on Commercial Street for 20 minutes, before the existential experience of watching your ETA update from 14 minutes to 31 minutes at 8:47am.
Option C — DAB 1 (Own It)
DAB 1 purchase price: from €9,990 (≈ £8,500 — finance available)
Annual insurance: ~£600
Charging costs (electric, near-zero): ~£90/year
Congestion Charge: £0
ULEZ: £0
Parking (motorcycle bays, free or near-free across London boroughs): £0–£150
Year 1 total (purchase year): ~£9,340
Year 2 onwards: ~£840/year
The 18-Month Number
Here is the calculation that matters most.
If you are already in a car — or about to lease one — the DAB 1 effectively pays for its own purchase price within 18 months, purely from what you stop paying. Congestion Charge alone: £3,750 a year. Central London parking: ~£2,160 a year. Combined: £5,910 in avoided costs per year, £492 per month.
£8,500 ÷ £492 = 17.3 months. The DAB 1 has paid for itself. From month 18 onwards, every commute costs you less than £3.50.
Against the full Volvo comparison — lease, charge, parking, insurance — the crossover comes even sooner. You are running ahead of the car by month 8, and by month 18 you are £10,800 better off. Against daily Uber, you break even around month 7 and save over £12,700 by the end of year one and a half.
The DAB 1 starts at €9,990. That is not a budget motorcycle price — it is a serious machine at a price that, for a London commuter paying today's charges, recovers itself faster than almost anything else you could spend it on.
The ULEZ Factor Most People Miss
The Congestion Charge is the headline, but ULEZ is the charge that catches people off guard.
The Ultra Low Emission Zone covers most of Greater London. Anything that fails to meet the emissions standards — Euro 6 for diesel, Euro 4 for petrol, Euro 3 for motorcycles — pays £12.50 per day. Every day. On top of any Congestion Charge liability.
Older motorcycles are not automatically exempt. A pre-2007 petrol bike that misses Euro 3 compliance pays £12.50 daily. A DAB 1 pays nothing. It is 100% electric, zero direct emissions, fully ULEZ exempt — and will remain so regardless of how the zone expands or the standards tighten.
As London continues to extend both ULEZ and Congestion Charge boundaries outward, the DAB's immunity to both compounds in value. It is not just the commute cost today. It is the insurance against tomorrow's rules.
What the DAB 1 Actually Is
It is worth being clear about what we are discussing, because the DAB 1 is frequently mischaracterised.
This is not a scooter. It is not a rebranded delivery vehicle. It is not a commuter compromise with a battery bolted on.
The DAB 1 is a handcrafted electric motorcycle, built in France by a team that approaches each bike with the same attention a watchmaker gives to a movement. The frame geometry, the battery integration, the finish — every element has been designed with intention. The result is a motorcycle that earns a second look on the Kings Road and still makes a Mayfair-to-Shoreditch run in under 15 minutes when the cars are standing still.
For those who want to go further — in specification, in presence — the DAB 1A is the next step. Same philosophy, refined further. The same obsessive construction, pushed to a higher register.
This is the bike that drew the attention of Peugeot Motocycles. The bike associated with Burberry. Not because of what it costs, but because of what it communicates.
The Time Equation
Cost is half the argument. The other half is time.
Average morning commute by car, Mayfair to Shoreditch: 28 minutes in light traffic, closer to 45 minutes when anything disrupts the A1211. By Tube, with a change at Bank or Liverpool Street: 22 minutes, assuming no delays and a seat. By DAB 1, filtering through traffic legally: 12 to 15 minutes, consistently, regardless of what is happening on the roads around you.
That is a saving of roughly 10 to 30 minutes per commute. Over 250 working days — 500 trips — you recover somewhere between 83 and 250 hours per year. At the conservative end, that is two full working weeks. At the upper end, it is closer to six.
You will not get those hours back from a Volvo XC40 or an Uber surge.
The Premium Buyer's Calculation
There is a version of this article written for someone optimising for the lowest possible monthly outlay. This is not that article.
This is for the person who already has a car, already absorbs the running costs, and is asking a more interesting question: is there a better way to move through this city?
The DAB 1 answers that in three directions simultaneously. It is cheaper over time. It is faster through traffic. And it looks like nothing else on London's streets — which, if you are honest, carries its own weight in the decision.
The Congestion Charge change is not the reason to buy a DAB. It is the reason to do the maths you probably should have done already.
See It for Yourself
The numbers make the case. The bike closes it.
If you want to understand more about who we are and how DAB came to exist, the story is here.
DAB Motors. Built in France. Ridden in London.