Economy 7 June 2024, 4:23pm

Hungary has issued almost 100,000 green licence plates by end-May

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The number of cars registered with green licence plates in Hungary has almost reached 99,000 by the end of May 2024, while the number of fully electric vehicles on the roads exceeded 57,000, official data by the Ministry of Interior show.

Monthly data

Turning green

In May 2024, a total of 2,642 vehicles were registered with green licence plates in Hungary, 4.1% more than in April and 44.1% more than in the same month of 2023.

This is how the green plate registrations have changed every month since January 2020 in the three main categories: Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV).

All electric

March saw the registration of 2,108 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Hungary, an all time high. The 1,881 green licence plates registered in May is the second highest.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)

HEVs are the second most popular type among electric vehicles in Hungary, but with far fewer of them getting registered than of BEVs. February was the best month both this year and as far as we have data (January 2020), with 744 HEVs getting green licence plates, followed by some fluctuation, a decline to 708 in March, a moderate recovery to 724 in April and another drop to 686 in May.

Plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs)

Registrations in this category are erratic and the trend is slightly ascending. A total of 91 PHEVs got green number plates in May, down from 109 in April. We've seen much higher figures in practically all but a couple of months since 2020.

To our enquiry, the Energy Ministry (which published a report based on Interior Ministry figures) explained last month that the upturn in the registration of vehicles with green licence plates owes to the e-vehicle subsidy programme recently announced with a HUF 30 billion budget.

Domestic companies can receive a state contribution of up to HUF 4 million per vehicle for the purchase of a pure electric car or commercial vehicle. By the end of April they have applied for more than HUF 13 billion in grants under the scheme for the purchase of over 3,400 vehicles, it added.

UPDATE:

The Energy Ministry reiterated on Tuesday (11 June) that the pick-up obviously owes to the aforementioned HUF 30 billion company e-car subsidy programme. In the tender open until next spring, some 3,100 companies have applied by end-May for a total of HUF 14.4 billion to purchase more than 3700 climate-friendly vehicles. So far, more than 1,000 applicants have been awarded a total of HUF 4.7 billion in public funding. Thanks to the programme, the domestic expansion of the pure electric fleet was the second highest in Europe in March and the fourth highest in April, the ministry added.

How many vehicles with green licence plates we have?

The answer to that question is: almost 100,000. Or 98,924 to be exact. The end-May figure marks a 2.7% month-on-month growth and a year-on-year increase of 35.7%. The number of green plates grew 5.5-fold since January 2020.

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 61.1% registered in the countryside and 38.9% in the capital.

As for the specific categories, the number of environmentally friendly motorcycles grew from 66 in January 2020 to 562 by end-May. Of BEVs, including passenger cars, trucks, buses, and tractors, there were 57,137 registered in Hungary, a 41% annual growth and almost 7.5 times as many as in January 2020.

The number of HEVs totalled 28,971, up 35.9% yr/yr, while the number of PHEVs went up 14.6% to over 12,247. Although the figures shown in graph below represent a wider range of vehicles (as the note in the chart says), passenger cars comprised virtually 100% of HEVs and PHEVs and 93% of BEVs in April.

You may find that there is a great discrepancy between the electric vehicle statistics of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) and of Hungary's Ministry of Energy, particularly if you try to compare figures for passenger cars.

The ACEA unites Europe’s 15 major car, truck, van and bus makers. Due to regular changes in the registration files by the official licensing authorities, ACEA registration data also changes regularly for the current and the previous year’s data. Altogether it's a 'shallower pool' of data than the Hungarian database.

The database of Hungary's Ministry of the Interior includes all vehicles registered with green number plates, including motorcycles, passenger cars, trucks, tractors, and other zero-emission vehicles.

The composition is only one of the factors behind the different statistics, though. The other one - and we will try to delve deeper into this later on - is that the ACEA publishes statistics only on newly registered vehicles that are NEW, while Hungarian authorities include also imported, i.e. second-hand electric vehicles in the statistics. Once we find out how many vehicles in the green number plate statistics are imported, we'll let you know. You can read more about this issue in our previous article here.