Hungary's electric vehicle market set to reach historic milestone

In November 2025, a total of 2,741 vehicles were registered with green licence plates in Hungary, 7.5% fewer than in October, but 41.2% more than in November 2024. This follows a 14.3% m/m and 49.2% yr/yr growth in October.

The number of vehicles with green licence plates reached 143,902, and that of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) 98,660. The latter number includes 91,411 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. 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.

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.

A total of 2,711 battery electric vehicles were newly registered with green licence plate in Hungary in November, following 2,935 in October and breaking the previous all-time high of 2,929 recorded in June.

the latest figure marks a 7.6% decrease in monthly terms and a 41.4% jump in annual terms.

The new registration of passenger cars in the BEV category, showed a 6.6% month-on-month decline and a 37% yr/yr growth to 2,432. The monthly record remains 2,707 tallied in June.

More than 68.5% 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 22% and 8.8%, respectively.

In the first 11 months of the year, 28,274 pure electric vehicles were registered with green licence plates, which marks a 42.2% year-on-year increase. Of these, 25,962 (92%) were passenger cars, which corresponds to a 41.5% yr/yr increase.

With only 1,340 more BEVs needed to reach 100,000 registrations, December would have to see an exceptionally poor number of green licence plate registrations for this milestone to be missed. The only month with fewer than 2,000 BEV registrations was January this year.

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 and recently to 26 February 2026. 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.

The budget has recently been raised by HUF 10 billion to HUF 40 billion.

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.

Up to mid-December, almost 9,400 applications have been received for the popular programme, requesting state subsidies for the purchase of around 10,800 vehicles. A total of HUF 34 billion has been awarded, of which HUF 23.4 billion has already been paid out towards the purchase of over 6,000 environmentally friendly cars.

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 62.5% registered in the countryside and 37.5% in the capital. This translates to 89,953 vehicles in rural Hungary and 53,949 in Budapest.

Of BEVs, including passenger cars, trucks, buses, and tractors, there were 98,660 registered in Hungary at the end of November, a 44.2% annual growth and almost 13 times as many as in January 2020 and more than 22 times as many as in January 2019.

The number of HEVs totalled 31.594, practically flat yr/yr, while the number of PHEVs totalled 12,666, also unchanged from a year earlier. Although the figures shown in graph below represent a wider range of vehicles (as the note in the chart says), passenger cars comprised 92.7% of BEVs in November.

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 2024.

Cover image (for illustration purposes only): Getty Images