Number of new green licence plate registrations reaches record high in Hungary

In March 2025, a total of 2,946 vehicles were registered with green licence plates in Hungary, 37.7% more than in February and almost the same (+0.9% as in the same month last year. There were five m/m drops last year in April (-13%), July (-10.8%), September (-26.1%), October (-6.1%), and November (-2.3%) and one this year in January (-1.9%).

Green licence plate registrations have dropped four times in annual terms, in oct24 (-11%), Nov24 (-10.8%), jan25 (-0.8%) and feb25 (-17.5%) since July 2023. This was the 3rd highest m/m growth of the past five years.

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).

BEVs

A total of 2,926 battery electric vehicles got green were newly registered in Hungary in March, an all-time high, beating the previous record of 2,124 registrations in February this year.

This marks a 37.8% month-on-month and a 38.8% year-on-year surge.

The new registration of passenger cars in the BEV category, showed an impressive 39.6% month-on-month rise and a 38.2% yr/yr jump. The former marks the sharpest growth since March 2022, while latter follows a 21.4% increase in February, which was the smallest since December 2023.

As for trucks, a total of 210 of them got green licence plates last month, up 17.3% over February and 43.8% more than in March 2024 (146).

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 continues to expect this trend to continue and

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

At the end of March, there were around 72,000 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 2,300 new BEV (passenger car) registrations in the remaining 21 months. Note that last month 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 slightly more than 2,000 new registrations required per month. The objective is practically unattainable if the target date is January next year, as it would require almost 5,400 new purely electric passenger car and more than 4,700 new BEV (all vehicles) registrations in each of the remaining nine months.

The number of eco-friendly motorcycles reached 712 by end-March, up by just seven units on a monthly basis, but the figure is still 35% higher than a year earlier.

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 on Monday,

• more than 6,600 companies applied for subsidies to buy close to 7,600 vehicles;
• these include more than 6,000 passenger cars and more than 1,600 vans.

The ministry said they had already contracted with almost 4,800 winning bidders to the tune of HUF 21.3 billion, and paid HUF 11,5 billion for almost 3,000 vehicles. 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 61.8% registered in the countryside and 38.2% in the capital. This translates to 75,600 vehicles in the countryside and almost 46,800 in Budapest.

Of BEVs, including passenger cars, trucks, buses, and tractors, there were 77,382 registered in Hungary at the end of March, a nearly 45% annual growth and 10 times as many as in January 2020.

The number of HEVs totalled 31.563, up 14.5% yr/yr, while the number of PHEVs shows a 5.0% growth to 12,651. 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 March.

How popular are 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.

Cover image (for illustration purposes only): Getty Images