Four countries, four different measurements, and each one sets your price on its own. France reads height and gross weight. Italy puts the tape on the front axle. Spain looks only at weight. Austria and Switzerland go by the mass your vehicle is technically rated for, and past their line the sticker you were about to buy is the wrong product. Every operator publishes its table. Here is what each one measures.
France: 2 meters and 3 meters are the two lines
VINCI Autoroutes sorts traffic into five classes. Classe 1 is anything up to 2 m tall with a PTAC (gross weight) of 3.5 tonnes or less. Classe 2 covers grands utilitaires, camping-cars and pick-ups with a habitation unit between 2 m and 3 m at 3.5 tonnes or less. Classe 3 starts at 3 m or more, or a PTAC above 3.5 tonnes, and that is the band trucks and coaches pay (vinci-autoroutes.com, checked August 10, 2026).
Most coachbuilts and high-top vans are classe 2 and stay there. What catches people out is the gauge, not the rule. VINCI tells camping-car drivers without a badge to take the card lanes fitted with a height gauge, and says its FFCC télépéage badge keeps a classe 2 vehicle recognized as classe 2 “même si vous voyagez avec une antenne, un coffre ou une climatisation sur le toit” (vinci-autoroutes.com, checked August 10, 2026). The roof box and the roof air conditioner get measured with you. If the brochure says 2.85 m and you have bolted something on since, the brochure is no longer your height.
Italy: the tape goes on the front axle
Italy uses assi-sagoma, axles and shape. Two axles measuring 1.30 m or less at the front axle is classe A. Two axles over 1.30 m is classe B. Three axles is classe 3, four is classe 4, five or more is classe 5, counted regardless of height (serravalle.it, checked August 10, 2026).
Every motorhome is classe B at best, so the expensive surprise in Italy is not height but axles: a tag-axle motorhome has three, and pays classe 3 alongside a three-axle truck.
Spain: weight, and nothing else
Real Decreto 205/2025 defines a vehículo ligero as one whose maximum authorized mass is not above 3.5 tonnes, and a vehículo pesado as one above it (boe.es, checked August 10, 2026). Height is not in the definition. A 3 m coachbuilt plated at 3.5 tonnes is a light vehicle in Spain and a classe 3 heavy vehicle in France on the same trip.
Switzerland: 40 francs, then a hard stop at 3.5 tonnes
The vignette costs CHF 40, sticker and e-vignette alike, and runs from 1 December of the previous year to 31 January of the following one (bazg.admin.ch, checked August 10, 2026). All motor vehicles and trailers up to 3.5 t are vignette liable, and a trailer needs its own unless a motorcycle is towing it, so towing means buying two (bazg.admin.ch FAQ, checked August 10, 2026).
Above 3.5 tonnes the vignette is not your product. Heavy motorhomes pay the PSVA, the lump-sum heavy vehicle charge, sold in blocks of days, months or a year through the Via portal, and charged for every day the vehicle is in Switzerland including the days it sits parked (bazg.admin.ch, checked August 10, 2026). The rate depends on your weight and the block you buy, so look yours up and budget from that, not from the CHF 40.
Austria: the plate decides, not the registration
For 2026 the vignette for multi-track vehicles up to 3.5 t is EUR 106.80 for the year, EUR 32.00 for two months, EUR 12.80 for ten days and EUR 9.60 for one day (oesterreich.gv.at, checked August 10, 2026).
The catch is which weight counts. Austria goes by technically permissible maximum laden mass, so a van downplated to 3.5 tonnes on paper but rated higher by the manufacturer is not automatically a vignette vehicle. One transitional rule covers the older ones: a vehicle over 3.5 t on that measure, for which a maximum permissible weight of 3.5 t or less was determined before 1 December 2023, stays vignette liable until 31 January 2029 (same page, same date).
Otherwise you are on the GO toll: a GO-Box for a EUR 12 processing fee, then a charge per kilometer set by axles, CO2 class and EURO class. On a motorhome the trailer axles and supporting axles do not count, and you set the axle number before every trip (go-maut.at, checked August 10, 2026).
Three numbers to write on the dashboard
Height measured loaded, with everything that lives on the roof. PTAC and technically permissible mass read off the manufacturer’s plate, not the brochure. Axle count. Those three settle your class in every country above, and the height is the same number that decides which stopovers you can physically get into.
For the rest of the border setup, including vignette penalties and low emission zones, see motorhome travel in Europe. For what else changes above 3.5 tonnes, from speed limits to winter tires, see driving rules that catch out visitors.
Sources
- Péage autoroute: classe de véhicule, VINCI Autoroutes
- Camping-car: votre passage au péage, VINCI Autoroutes
- Classi pedaggio, Milano Serravalle
- Real Decreto 205/2025, Boletín Oficial del Estado
- Schweizer Autobahnvignette, Federal Office for Customs and Border Security
- FAQ Vignette, Federal Office for Customs and Border Security
- Pauschale Schwerverkehrsabgabe (PSVA), Federal Office for Customs and Border Security
- Vignette for motor vehicles weighing up to 3.5 t, oesterreich.gv.at
- GO toll for heavy motorhomes, ASFINAG
When a source is not in English, follow the link for the official wording.