Business 13 August 2025, 9:02am

Green lincence plate registrations drop m/m in Hungary in July after surge

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Following a 15.4% jump in June 2025, the number of green licence plates issued in Hungary dropped by 7.7% month-on-month in July, while the 3.0% year-on-year increase was followed by a 6.5% growth, according to the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior. The number of newly registered pure electric passenger cars with green plates increased by more than 55% yr/yr but dropped 6.6% in monthly terms. There were more than 133,000 vehicles with green licence plates in circulation at the end of July, seven times more than in January 2020 and almost 12 times more than in January 2019.

In July 2025, a total of 2,738 vehicles were registered with green licence plates in Hungary, 7.7% fewer than in June (+15.4% m/m), but 6.5% more than in July 2024. The yr/yr growth comes after a 3% incresae in June.

The registration of 2,738 green licence plates comes after a new record of 2,967 reported for June this year.

The number of vehicles with green licence plates reached 133,063, and that of batter-electric vehicles (BEVs) 87,943. The latter number includes 81,672 passenger cars.

The following graph shows the monthly tally of green plate registrations since January 2020 in the three main categories: Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV).

The dramatic decline in the HEV and PHEV categories was triggered by regulatory changes (described in the box below). While we continue to receive monthly data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) on new passenger car registrations, including the uptake of electric vehicles for all engine types, the HEV and PHEV figures in green number plate reports from the Ministry of the Interior will continue to be practically zero.

Extended-range, externally chargeable hybrid electric vehicles (5N) and externally chargeable hybrid electric vehicles (plug-in hybrid vehicles, 5P) have no longer been able to receive green number plates when first registered in Hungary since 1 September 2024. In addition, previously issued green number plates for these vehicles will have to be replaced by 30 November 2026 at the latest, beyond which date they must have regular licence plates.

Environmentally friendly vehicles (5E, 5N, 5P, 5Z) uniformly benefit from the following discounts: (i) exemption from vehicle tax, (ii) exemption from company car tax, (iii) exemption from transfer tax and (iv) zero registration tax.

With those in the 5N and 5P categories no longer deemed environmentally friendly from 1 September, they should be subjected to the vehicle tax, although the regulation does not define precisely what environmentally friendly means. If they were to further specify the definition in the vehicle tax law, vehicles classified as 5N and 5P will most likely be subjected to the company car tax too. These vehicles are also most likely to be subjected to the transfer tax and the registration tax (estimated to be HUF 76,000).

A total of 2,706 battery electric vehicles were newly registered with green licence plate in Hungary in July, following a new all-time high of 2,929 in June.

the latest figure marks a 7.6% decrease in monthly terms and a 57% jump in annual terms.

The new registration of passenger cars in the BEV category, showed a 7.6% month-on-month fall and a 55.2% yr/yr jump to 2,501.

More than 66% of all vehicles with green licence plates are now battery electric vehicles, up from 44.3% in January 2019. Meanwhile, due to the aforementioned regulatory changes, the share of HEVs and PHEVs has declined from around 28% to 23.7% and 9.5%, respectively.

In the first seven months of the year, 17,557 pure electric vehicles were registered with green licence plates, which marks an almost 42% year-on-year increase. Of these, 16,223 were passenger cars, which corresponds to a 43% yr/yr increase.

Based on pro rata progression, there is a good chance that last year's highs will be surpassed in 2025,

the Energy Ministry commented similar data last month, but not this time. It does not mention it either that the total number of green licence plates issued in January-July was 2.3% lower this year (17,741) than in the first seven months of 2024 (18,163).

Last year, more pure electric cars than ever before - nearly 22,000 - received green plates in Hungary. This contributed to the fourth largest increase in 2024 in Europe.

The Energy Ministry openly projected for a long time that this trend would continue and

the number of electric-only cars should increase to 120,000 in 2026.

At the end of July, there were almost 81,700 all-electric passenger cars registered in Hungary, so the 120,000 target only seems somewhat realistic if the ministry means the end of 2026. But even that would require a monthly average of 2,255 new BEV (passenger car) registrations in the remaining 17 months. Note that March was the first time more than 2,000 new all-electric passenger cars were registered in Hungary. Should the ministry mean BEVs in general, the target becomes more realistic, with about 1,890 new registrations required per month. The objective is practically unattainable if the target date is January next year, as it would require about 7,670 new purely electric passenger car and a bit more than 6,400 new BEV (all vehicles) registrations in each of the remaining five months.

The continued rise in EV registrations is also linked to the government's support scheme, which was opened on 5 February 2024 and was to expire at the end of March, but was extended to 1 December 2025. It allows companies to apply for between 2.8 and 4 million HUF per car, depending on the battery capacity and vehicle category, for the purchase of green cars.

Depending on the number of employees, a company can receive between HUF 2.8 and 64 million in total to upgrade its fleet with climate-friendly vehicles.

The number of cars you can apply for depends on the number of employees:
- up to 9 employees can apply for 1 car,
- 10-49 employees for 5 cars,
- 50-249 employees for 10 cars and
- 250 employees and up for a maximum of 16 cars.

The amount of the grant depends on the net purchase price of the vehicle, the gross battery capacity and whether the application is for a car or a truck. Buying the EV(s) can take up to 20 months to complete from the start date, with a final deadline of 30 April 2026.

According to the latest figures shared by the Energy Ministry at the end of July (the green licence plate statistics were published by the Ministry of the Interior only about a week ago),

HUF 27.6 billion in subsidies were awarded to more than 6,200 companies.
The more than 4,000 winners received HUF 17.6 billion.
The winning applicants bought more than 4,500 BEVs.

The tender manager is expected to suspend the tender if the amount of funds committed exceeds HUF 30 billion.

The geographical distribution shows that while at the beginning almost the same share of green licence plates were registered in Budapest (48.9%) than in the rest of the country (51.1%), the ratio has become much healthier by now, with 62.2% registered in the countryside and 37.8% in the capital. This translates to more than 82,700 vehicles in rural Hungary and more than 50,300 in Budapest.

Of BEVs, including passenger cars, trucks, buses, and tractors, there were almost 88,000 registered in Hungary at the end of July, a 44.3% annual growth and more than 11 times as many as in January 2020 and almost 20 times as many as in January 2019.

The number of HEVs totalled 31.572, up 4% yr/yr, while the number of PHEVs shows a 1.6% growth to 12,662. Although the figures shown in graph below represent a wider range of vehicles (as the note in the chart says), passenger cars comprised 93% of BEVs in July.

How popular are (were) the different kind of EVs in Hungary?

Green licence plate registrations took off in the first half of 2022 compared to the H1 2021, then the growth petered out in January-July 2023 only to soar again in the first nine months of last year. The same pattern applies to BEVs, while HEVs showed a more modest but steady growth, and the popularity of PHEVs actually subsided.

Unless one of the ministries or the Central Statistical Office (KSH) decide to publish detailed statistics, i.e. a breakdown of EVs, we will be able to learn about the HEV and PHEV registrations only from the monthly ACEA reports, but those DO NOT include imported (second-hand) vehicles, while the Hungarian green licence plate stats do.

The graphs below show the 'popularity' of the three types of electric vehicles, but the light blue and dark blue columns have essentially become obsolete, unless we use them for comparison up to 2024 when the regulatory changes - excluding HEVs and PHEVs from getting green licence plates - entered into effect on 1 September.