EV Grants and Car Tax in 2026: What the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Ukraine Actually Pay You
Germany, the UK and France are the three biggest electric car markets in Europe. In 2025 they registered 545,142, 473,348 and 326,922 new EVs. Spain is smaller at 101,627, but it grew 77% in a year, faster than any of them. Ukraine barely shows up on new-car charts with 22,800, and yet Ukrainians imported 84,400 used EVs in the same year. Roughly one in four cars brought into the country was electric.
Five very different markets. And in 2026, every one of them changed its rules.
Germany opened applications for a brand new income-tested purchase premium on 19 May. Spain scrapped MOVES III and replaced it with a formula that pays you differently depending on where your battery was built. France now has three separate bonus amounts, and which one you get depends on your tax return. The UK moved its luxury-car tax threshold and announced a pay-per-mile charge for 2028. Ukraine went the other way entirely and deleted its VAT exemption on 1 January.
If you're buying your first EV this year, the grant on the poster is rarely the number that decides anything. What decides it is the gap between what you get once and what you pay every year after. This guide puts both sides in the same table, country by country, as of August 2026.
Table of Contents
- Quick summary
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- France
- Spain
- Ukraine
- The number that actually decides it
- Buying used? Read this bit
- FAQ
- References
Quick Summary
| Country | Maximum grant (new EV) | Income-tested? | Used EVs eligible? | Annual vehicle tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | £3,750 (Band 1) or £1,500 (Band 2). RRP cap £37,000 | No | No | £10 year one, then £200/yr. Add £440/yr for 5 years if list price tops £50,000 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | €6,000 (€3,000 base plus child and income bonuses) | Yes, household cap €80,000 to €90,000 | No | €0. Exempt for 10 years if first registered by 31 Dec 2030 |
| 🇫🇷 France | €7,700 (€5,700 bonus plus €2,000 battery surbonus) | Yes, three tiers by RFR | No | €0 annual tax for private owners |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | €4,500 (Plan Auto+, formula-based) | No, but price-capped | No | Municipal IVTM. Up to 75% off, but only if your council offers it |
| 🇺🇦 Ukraine | None. VAT exemption abolished 1 Jan 2026 | n/a | n/a | 20% VAT on import plus €1 per kWh excise |
Two things stand out. First, not one of these five schemes gives you a euro or a pound toward a used EV. That's where most first-time buyers actually shop.
Second, the country with the biggest headline number (France, €7,700) and the one with nothing at all (Ukraine) both charge private owners almost nothing to keep the car on the road. The UK sits in the middle on grants and is the only one of the five building a real ongoing tax on electric driving.
United Kingdom: £3,750 up front, £200 to £640 a year back
The Electric Car Grant knocks up to £3,750 off a new EV. It's applied automatically at the point of sale, so there's nothing to claim. But there are two bands, and most cars land in the smaller one:
| Band | Discount | Who gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | £3,750 | A handful of models so far |
| Band 2 | £1,500 | Most of the eligible list |
Your band is decided on manufacturing emissions, not on how good the car is. Battery pack production carries 70% of the weighting, final assembly 30%, and the carbon intensity of the factory's local grid counts too. That's why Chinese-assembled models, plus several built in South Korea and Mexico, have mostly been kept out of Band 1 however well they drive.
There's a price cap too: £37,000 RRP. Pricier trims up to £42,000 can still qualify, as long as the battery is the same size as the cheapest version of that model.
New cars only. The UK has no used-EV equivalent.
EVs also stopped being tax-free in April 2025:
| Situation | Vehicle Excise Duty |
|---|---|
| New EV, first year | £10 |
| EV registered 1 Apr 2017 onward, year two onward | £200/yr |
| EV registered 1 Mar 2001 to 31 Mar 2017 | £20/yr |
| New EV, list price over £50,000 | £200 plus £440 Expensive Car Supplement = £640/yr for five years |
The £50,000 threshold for zero-emission cars was announced in the November 2025 Budget and took effect on 1 April 2026, up from £40,000. That pulled a lot of mid-market EVs back out of the supplement. But five years of £440 still adds up to £2,200.
Worth knowing that the grant and the supplement can never apply to the same car. The grant stops at £42,000. The supplement starts at £50,000. So a £36,000 EV in Band 1 collects £3,750 and pays £200 a year, while a £52,000 EV collects nothing and pays £640 a year for five years. The real distance between those two cars isn't £16,000. Counting tax and the grant you didn't get, it's closer to £22,000.
One more thing to budget for. From April 2028 the UK introduces eVED, a pay-per-mile charge: 3p a mile for EVs, 1.5p for plug-in hybrids. You'll declare mileage at tax renewal and it gets checked at MOT. At 10,000 miles a year that's around £300 on top of the standard rate. If you're buying a car you plan to keep past 2028, factor it in now.
Germany: the new income-tested premium
Germany's 2026 scheme is the fiddliest of the five and, for the right household, the most generous relative to what the car costs. What you get:
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Battery-electric, base | from €3,000 |
| Plug-in hybrid, base (needs 80 km+ electric range) | from €1,500 |
| Per child, up to two | +€500 each |
| Household taxable income under €60,000 | +€1,000 |
| Household taxable income under €45,000 | +€1,000 more |
| Realistic maximum | €6,000 |
To qualify, household taxable income has to stay under €80,000 a year. That rises to €85,000 with one child and €90,000 with two or more. They average your two most recent tax assessments to work it out.
Timing is the part people get wrong. The scheme is retroactive to cars first registered from 1 January 2026, but applications only opened on 19 May 2026. You get 12 months from your registration date to apply. So if you registered in January and haven't applied yet, you're still fine. You're just not fine forever.
You'll need the vehicle's FIN, your two most recent Steuerbescheide (no older than three years), Kindergeld proof if you're claiming child bonuses, the EU Certificate of Conformity for plug-in hybrids, and a BundID to submit.
Used cars are excluded, which stings more in Germany than anywhere else here, because German used-EV supply is the deepest in Europe.
The trade-off is that running costs are close to nothing. Kfz-Steuer is waived for up to ten years for EVs first registered by 31 December 2030, with the exemption ending no later than 31 December 2035. The law extending this (the Eighth Amendment to the Motor Vehicle Tax Act) was published on 22 December 2025 and took effect on 1 January 2026. If your exemption was previously capped at 2030, the tax office is updating it automatically during 2026. You don't have to ask.
Here's the bit that matters for used buyers: the remaining exemption transfers with the car. Buy a used EV and you inherit whatever's left of its ten years, with no application needed.
France: three bonus tiers and a battery bonus
France pays you based on your tax return. Your revenu fiscal de référence (RFR) per share puts you in one of three tiers:
| RFR per share | Base bonus |
|---|---|
| Up to €16,301 | €5,700 |
| €16,301 to €26,300 | €4,700 |
| Above €26,300 | €3,500 |
On top sits a European battery surbonus of €1,200 to €2,000, depending on where the battery was made. Maximum possible: €7,700, the biggest headline figure of the five countries here.
Four eligibility gates, and cars fail on all of them:
- 100% electric, never previously registered
- Price under €47,000 TTC, including every option you tick
- Kerb weight under 2,400 kg
- ADEME environmental score of at least 60/80
That last one catches people out. The score weights manufacturing and shipping emissions heavily, which is why several imported models that look like obvious value simply aren't on the eligible list. Check ADEME's list before you commit, not after.
Plug-in hybrids have been out since 1 July 2025.
Scrapping an old car? The prime à la conversion adds €1,500 to €6,000 for vehicles over 11 years old (diesel) or 16 (petrol), rated Crit'Air 3 or worse. Stack it with the bonus and surbonus and a very modest household can in theory reach €13,700.
Two admin details. Since 1 July 2025 the bonus is paid through the CEE energy-savings-certificate system rather than by the state directly, which in practice means two to four weeks instead of months. And there's a lock-in: keep the car at least 12 months and 6,000 km, or pay the whole bonus back.
Annual tax for private EV owners in France is zero. The cost that matters there is registration, not ownership.
Spain: Plan Auto+ and the origin formula
Spain retired MOVES III and brought in Plan Auto+ (you'll also see it called Plan Auto 2030). It works differently from everything else on this page, because it's a percentage formula rather than a flat amount.
The ceiling for a passenger car is €4,500, built from three parts:
| Phase | Condition | Share of maximum |
|---|---|---|
| 1, powertrain | Pure electric | 50% |
| Plug-in hybrid or range-extender | 25% | |
| 2, price | Under €35,000 pre-tax | 25% |
| €35,001 to €45,000 pre-tax | 15% | |
| Above €45,000 pre-tax | 0% | |
| 3, origin | Final assembly in the EU | 15% |
| Battery pack also assembled in the EU | +10% |
So a €30,000 EU-built EV with an EU battery pack collects all three parts and gets the full €4,500. A €48,000 EV built outside the EU collects only the 50% powertrain share, and since the price cap for passenger cars is €45,000 pre-tax, above that line you get nothing at all.
Applies to purchases from 1 January 2026, and manufacturers have to chip in a discount of at least €1,000 themselves. The plan is an instant discount at the till rather than the 18-month reimbursement waits that made MOVES III infamous. As of August 2026 the operational detail on how and when the money actually lands is still being worked out, so check the current process in the BOE or with your dealer before you sign anything.
Annual tax in Spain is the IVTM, and your town hall sets it, not the government. National law lets municipalities discount zero-label vehicles by up to 75%, but it's optional, and each council decides for itself. Madrid gives 75% permanently from first registration. Barcelona gives 75% for five years, and you have to apply in writing by 16 July. Valencia gives 75% with no time limit, applications due by 31 December for the following year.
In several cities the discount only happens if you apply for it. Plenty of Spanish EV owners pay full IVTM because nobody told them there was a form. Check your ayuntamiento's page, and check whether your autonomous community runs a top-up grant too, because many do.
Ukraine: the country that removed its incentive
Ukraine ran a full VAT exemption on EV imports for years, and killed it on 1 January 2026. What an imported EV costs at the border now:
| Charge | Rate |
|---|---|
| VAT | 20% of customs-assessed value |
| Excise | €1 per kWh of battery capacity |
| Import duty | 0% for pure EVs |
| Pension fund contribution | 0% |
The words doing the work are customs-assessed. Customs no longer takes your invoice at face value. Automated risk systems cross-check declared prices against Copart, IAAI and Chinese marketplace data, and anything below the expected range gets blocked. Plan on the assessed value being at or above what you paid.
A worked example on a typical used import, a $12,000 car with a 60 kWh pack:
- Customs-assessed value, adjusted upward: around $13,500
- Excise: 60 kWh × €1 = €60
- VAT: 20% of $13,500 = around $2,700
- Plus broker fees, certification lab (roughly €300 to €500) and technical passport registration
- Total added cost: roughly $2,800 to $3,000
That's a 20% to 25% jump in landed cost versus 2025, and why almost 26,000 EVs were rushed through customs in December 2025 alone. VAT-registered businesses can reclaim the 20% under conditions. Private buyers can't.
The number that actually decides it
Grants are one-off and loud. Taxes are recurring and quiet. Over five years, the quiet ones are usually bigger. A rough picture for a mid-market EV bought new, ignoring purchase price and depreciation:
| Country | Grant received | Vehicle tax over 5 years | Net position |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK (£36k, Band 1) | −£3,750 | +£810 | −£2,940 |
| UK (£52k, no grant) | £0 | +£2,570 | +£2,570 |
| Germany (mid-income, 1 child) | −€3,500 | €0 | −€3,500 |
| France (mid RFR plus surbonus) | −€6,200 | €0 | −€6,200 |
| Spain (EU-built, under €35k) | −€4,500 | around €300, varies by council | −€4,200 |
| Ukraine (imported) | €0 | +around $2,800 at import | +$2,800 |
Illustrative. Excludes energy, insurance, maintenance and depreciation, all bigger than every figure here.
Depreciation on its own dwarfs every incentive on this page. A €4,500 grant is roughly what a mid-market EV loses in its first eight months. That's not a reason to skip the grant. Take the grant. It's a reason to spend your research time on which car holds its value.
You can model your own version with real energy tariffs and depreciation curves in the Wise EV comparison tool.
Buying used? Read this bit
Every scheme above is for new cars. If you're buying used, like most first-time EV buyers, your savings come from four other places:
1. The first owner's depreciation. A two or three year old EV typically sells 30% to 50% below its new equivalent. That's bigger than any grant on this page, and it isn't close.
2. Verified battery health. A state-of-health figure below 80% changes both your range and your resale value. A certificate runs about £60 to £100 in the UK and is often free from approved-used dealers. Don't buy without one.
3. Tax breaks that survive the sale. German used EVs carry the rest of their ten-year Kfz-Steuer exemption to the new owner automatically. French private owners still pay no annual tax. UK used EVs pay the £200 standard rate but dodge the Expensive Car Supplement entirely if the car was registered before April 2025.
Our used EV buying guide goes deeper on battery verification.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get a government grant for a used electric car anywhere in Europe? Not from any of the five national schemes here. The UK, German, French and Spanish programmes all require a new, first-registration vehicle, and Ukraine has no scheme at all in 2026. Some regional and municipal programmes do cover used cars, so check your autonomous community, Land, région or council directly.
Why did my EV only get £1,500 from the Electric Car Grant instead of £3,750? It landed in Band 2. Banding is judged on manufacturing emissions: battery pack production is 70% of the weighting, final assembly 30%, and the carbon intensity of the factory's local grid counts as well. Very few models have made Band 1. None of it relates to the car's range or efficiency, so a better car can genuinely get less money.
Does the UK's £50,000 threshold include options? Yes. It's based on the list price as configured, so factory options count. A £48,000 base price can be pushed over the line by a few boxes, which costs you £440 a year for five years, £2,200 in total. Check the final configured price, not the brochure.
I registered a German EV in February 2026 and haven't applied for the premium. Have I missed it? No. The scheme is retroactive to registrations from 1 January 2026 and you have 12 months from your registration date. Applications opened 19 May 2026. Get your FIN, your two most recent Steuerbescheide and a BundID ready.
Do I keep the German Kfz-Steuer exemption if I buy the car second-hand? Yes. The remaining exemption period transfers to you automatically when the car changes hands, with no separate application. How much time you get depends on the original registration date and the 2035 cutoff.
Is importing an EV to Ukraine still worth it now VAT is back? Depends entirely on the source-market price. You're adding roughly 20% to 25% of customs-assessed value, so it only works where the price gap against the Ukrainian domestic market beats that. Because customs now values cars automatically against Copart and IAAI data, build your sums on the assessed value, not on what you paid.
References
All figures verified 17 August 2026. Schemes change often, sometimes mid-year. Confirm with your country's official portal before you buy.
- Best Selling Cars. 2025 full year Europe: BEV sales per European country. https://www.best-selling-cars.com/europe/2025-full-year-europe-bev-electric-car-sales-per-european-country/
- Eauto.org.ua. Electric vehicle market in Ukraine: results of 2025. https://eauto.org.ua/en/news/975-electric-vehicle-market-in-ukraine-results-of-2025
- House of Commons Library. Vehicle excise duty and zero emission vehicles. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9690/
- RAC. Electric Car Grant: what is it and which EVs get discounts?. https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/electric-cars/choosing/electric-car-grant/
- RAC. Electric car road tax: guide to VED for EVs 2026. https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/electric-cars/running/electric-car-road-tax-guide-do-i-need-to-pay/
- Zoll (German customs). Verlängerung der Steuerbefreiung für reine Elektrofahrzeuge. https://www.zoll.de/SharedDocs/Fachmeldungen/Aktuelle-Einzelmeldungen/2026/kfz_verlaengerung_steuerbefreiung_elektrofahrzeuge.html
- ADAC. E-Auto-Förderung: Staatliche Kaufprämie. https://www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/elektromobilitaet/elektroauto/foerderung-elektroautos/
- CapCar. Bonus écologique 2026: montants, conditions et véhicules éligibles. https://www.capcar.fr/blog/bonus-ecologique-2026-montants-conditions-et-vehicules-eligibles
- Xataka. Plan Auto+: requisitos y cómo solicitar las ayudas 2026. https://www.xataka.com/basics/ayudas-gobierno-para-coche-electrico-2026-que-ofrece-plan-auto-requisitos-como-solicitarlo
- RACE. Impuesto de circulación coches eléctricos. https://www.race.es/impuesto-circulacion-coches-electricos
- Actum. Розмитнення електромобілів 2026. https://www.actum.com.ua/blog-3-1/rozmitnennya-elektromobiliv-poryadok-vartist-zakon-ukrayiny
- Dev.ua. EV imports to Ukraine in 2025. https://dev.ua/en/news/import-elektrokariv-u-2025-rotsi-1770621763