Spain’s government has delayed the publication of eligibility rules for its new electric vehicle purchase incentive scheme as it considers introducing a carbon footprint assessment similar to that used in France, according to Spanish media and industry officials.
The delay affects Plan Auto+, a central element of Spain’s revamped e-mobility strategy under the national España Auto 2030 plan. The programme is designed to replace the existing Moves III scheme from 2026 and channel €400 million in direct subsidies to consumers to help lower the cost of electric vehicles. Unlike its predecessor, Plan Auto+ will be administered centrally by the state rather than by Spain’s autonomous regions.
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According to reports by La Tribuna de Automoción, the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs is holding back the final criteria while it works to integrate a CO₂ footprint scoring mechanism. The approach mirrors the French model, which links incentive eligibility to emissions generated during vehicle production and transport, a system that tends to favour European-built models and limit support for vehicles imported from China.
Plan Auto+ had initially been expected to take effect at the start of the year, immediately after the expiry of Moves III at the end of 2025. The absence of published criteria has created a temporary gap in purchase incentives, prompting concerns among industry participants that EV demand could stall in the near term.
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Spain’s incentive overhaul also includes two additional funding pillars. A new €300 million programme, Moves Corredores, will support the deployment of public charging infrastructure, while €580 million will be allocated in 2026 to the existing PERTE scheme to back industrial projects related to electric vehicles and battery production.
The restructuring comes as Spain’s charging infrastructure continues to expand. Spain’s publicly accessible electric vehicle charging network reached 50,000 operational charging points by the start of 2026, with the number of fast chargers more than doubling over the past year, according to industry data released by AEDIVE.
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The now-expiring Moves III programme, launched in 2021 and expanded several times to a total budget of €1.735 billion, was criticised for slow and uneven disbursement, with some applicants waiting up to two years for payments. The government says centralising Plan Auto+ is intended to speed up processing and ensure more uniform access nationwide.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has described the reform as strategically important for Spain’s industrial and climate objectives. “We want to produce electric cars in Spain that are affordable for the middle and working classes of our country and ensure these groups are not excluded from the Green Deal,” Sánchez said recently.
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Spain is Europe’s second-largest vehicle manufacturer, with the automotive sector accounting for nearly 10% of GDP and supporting close to two million direct and indirect jobs. However, EV adoption remains comparatively slow. Spanish EV news outlet Forocoches Electricos has pointed to limited charging availability in some regions and bureaucratic complexity as persistent obstacles to faster market growth.
The government has highlighted upcoming domestically produced electric models — including a new generation of small EVs planned by Volkswagen Group — as an opportunity to broaden adoption. Sánchez has said models priced below €25,000 are expected to reach the market next year, which he sees as critical to making electric mobility accessible to a wider share of households.
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Under current plans, Plan Auto+ will provide €400 million in EV purchase subsidies in 2026, broadly in line with previous annual funding levels. Officials say the programme’s design draws on the Reinicia Auto+ flood-relief scheme, under which the government said 95% of applications in Valencia were processed within a year.
