The presentation of the Auto+ Planthe Government’s new direct aid program to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles, has come with more than just announcements of millionaire investments and promises for the sector. It has also raised doubts. Specifically, it has generated expectations about what will happen with the thousands of people who have been increasing the waiting list for the plan that is about to retire, the MOVES III. Logical. After all, it is calculated that there are tens of thousands of people who still They are waiting for your help.
The Ministry of Industry already has confirmed that the Auto+ Plan will not cover the loose ends left by its predecessor. Their solution would be another: inject more funds into MOVES so that the autonomies attend to all the “pending requests”. In fact, it has already committed to mobilizing 400 million thinking about the users who were left in administrative limbo with the change of plan.
What has happened? That the announcement of the new Auto+ Plan has generated expectation… and doubts, unknowns that can be explained for three reasons.
The first is that the Auto+ Plan will arrive in 2026 to retire MOVES IIIapproved retroactively last spring to support electric purchases made between January 2 and December 31, 2025. The second reason is that, due to the design of MOVES III, its funds They didn’t take long to run out in several communities, generating a considerable waiting list. The third reason is that the Government itself has made clear since Auto+ will not cover the pool of pending payments that MOVES III applicants have made up.
What is the difference between MOVES III and Auto+? Basically, they are two different plans, with notable differences in their approach and application. In spring the Government provided MOVES III with 400 million euros designed to support purchases made throughout 2025, an injection of funds that was managed with a peculiarity: although the plan comes from the central government and is carried out through the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), its funds are distributed among the autonomous communities to process the applications.
This bet allowed the system to be decentralized, but it was also focus of criticism due to delays and blockages. The Government seems to have taken note and on Wednesday announced “a new line of help” endowed with another 400 million euros by 2026, the Auto+ Plan, which will be carried out directly by the ministry.
“This aid will be managed by the central government, not the Autonomous Communities, to guarantee greater speed and homogeneity in management,” confirm from La Moncloa. The new plan also differs from its predecessor, MOVES III, in other details, such as that it will not cover personal charging points and the aid will be delivered at the time of purchase. Although the program generated some doubts, there was one in particular that clouded its presentation… What the hell happens with the pending issues that MOVES III has pending once it retires?
Is that important? Yes. And it is because of a revealed piece of information a few days ago by Europa Press: MOVES has 40,000 clients on a waiting list pending receipt of aid. Not only that. The agency assures, citing sector estimates, that the amount pending payment would be around 300 million euros.
Such a figure is partly explained by how the plan was designed, with a distribution of resources based on the population and not on where the demand for electric vehicles is actually registered. This caused Madrid and Catalonia to exhaust their funds after just a few months, in July and September, respectively.
And what is the situation now? At the end of November Europa Press assured that there were 10 autonomous communities that had already exhausted their funds. However, as MOVES III did not expire until December 31, 2025, it continued to add applicants who piled up on a waiting list. The same one that was surrounded by doubts after the presentation of the new plan.
If Auto+ centralizes management and creates a single fund for the entire country, this will prevent buyers who request aid from depending on whether or not their regions have exhausted the allocated amounts in the future. The problem is the past: the approximately 40,000 clients who, according to the news agency, are keeping an eye on the MOVES piggy bank and see how the plan is about to expire.
Has the Government said anything? Yes. The waiting list has generated so much expectation that the Ministry of Industry and Tourism has had to come out to clarify some keys. Yesterday, during a visit to Valencia, Jordi Hereu confirmed that the new Pan Auto+ direct aid plan will focus “on present and future demand”, which will not cover the pool of users carried by MOVES III.
Does that mean that the Government will leave lying to those thousands of buyers waiting for your help? On Thursday Hereu did not go into details, but he did say that the Executive will look for a way to shorten the waiting list of the previous plan. “(Everything that) has been done and managed in 2025 with MOVES III, which has been a success, is an element that we will surely address in due course,” guaranteed.
And how will he do it? The answer has arrived today. Just 48 hours after announcing its new program, the Government has committed to mobilizing an extra 400 million euros in 2025 to meet pending MOVES III requests. The news is spread by economic media, such as The Economist and Expansionthat assures that the IDEA contacted the CCAA yesterday to confirm that the funds have been expanded so that they can cover the users who were left in limbo. The injection is added to that of Auto+.
Images | Precious Madubuike (Unsplash) and Pool Moncloa/José Manuel Álvarez
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