Electric vehicle registrations pick up in Hungary in September after August slump

In September 2025, a total of 2,593 vehicles were registered with green licence plates in Hungary, 2% more than in August (-7.2% m/m), and 22.5% more than in September 2024. The impressive incresae comes on the back of a 11.2% decline in August.

the Registration of 2,593 green licence plates followed 2,541 registrations in August, with a record 2,967 reported in June this year.

The number of vehicles with green licence plates reached 138,197, and that of batter-electric vehicles (BEVs) 93,014. The latter number includes 86,374 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 2024, 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 2,562 battery electric vehicles were newly registered with green licence plate in Hungary in September, following 2,509 in August and an all-time high of 2,929 in June.

the latest figure marks a 2.1% increase in monthly terms and a 23.6% jump in annual terms.

The new registration of passenger cars in the BEV category, also showed a 2.8% month-on-month increase and a 21.1% yr/yr growth to 2,383.

More than 67% 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 22.9% and 9.2%, respectively.

In the first nine months of the year, 22,628 pure electric vehicles were registered with green licence plates, which marks a 41.3% year-on-year increase. Of these, 20,925 (92.5%) were passenger cars, which corresponds to a 41.8% yr/yr increase.

With growth continuing at the same pace, the new annual record could exceed 30,000 new green cars put into service, bringing the domestic fleet to 100,000 units this year, the Energy Ministry projected..

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.

However, we haven't heard that particular estimate for months now.

At the end of September, there were almost 86,400 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 2,242 new BEV (passenger car) registrations in the remaining 15 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 1,800 new registrations required per month. The objective is practically unattainable if the target date is January next year, as it would require about 9,000 new battery electric vehicles and 11,200 new passenger car registrations in each of the remaining three 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.

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.

According to the latest figures shared by the Energy Ministry earlier this month,

• almost HUF 30 billion in subsidies (of the HUF 40 bn budget) were awarded,
• with around HUF 21 billion paid out for the purchase of almost 5,400 cars.
• The 8,000 applicants were able to buy almost 9,200 electric passenger cars and more than 2,000 climate-friendly small utility vehicles with the state subsidy.
• So far, eight applications were received for small buses and eight for trucks weighing more than 3.5 tonnes.

The tender manager is expected to suspend the tender if the amount of funds committed exceeds HUF 40 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 62.3% registered in the countryside and 37.7% in the capital. This translates to more than 86,000 vehicles in rural Hungary and more than 52,100 in Budapest.

Of BEVs, including passenger cars, trucks, buses, and tractors, there were 93,014 registered in Hungary at the end of September, a 67.3% annual growth and 12 times as many as in January 2020 and almost 21 times as many as in January 2019.

The number of HEVs totalled 31.582, practically flat yr/yr, while the number of PHEVs totalled 12,661, 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 93% of BEVs in September.

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 photo: Ministry of Energy's Facebook page