Spain seems to have solved the problem of aid for the purchase of electric cars. It only took seven years of chaos

The aid to buy an electric car is chaos. They should stop being so soon. Very soon, in fact. Or, at least, that is the (umpteenth) promise that the Government has made in this regard. He announced it in the Council of Ministers, confirming that the presentation of the bases to receive the Auto+ Plan is just around the corner.

This is what we know.

What has been announced. He Auto+ Plan It should be up and running in the next few days or, at the latest, a few weeks. That is what has been announced in the press conference of the Council of Ministers where the first details have been given of how aid for the purchase of new completely electric vehicles should be unblocked.

In the statement before the media, however, no more details have been clarified than those that were offered in February 2026 when the project was already late compared to the promises. That is to say: the aid will take into account the cost of the vehicle, its place of manufacture and the origin of its batteries.

What did we know? Last February, The Government confirmed that aid for the purchase of electric cars They will be delivered as follows:

In 2025 it has already been promised that these aids would be direct at the time of purchase. That is, the customer would leave the dealership without the obligation to advance the aid and waiting to receive the money in their bank account. The claim is recurring since 2019 when the first MOVES Plan was approved but that promise disappeared with the extension of the MOVES III Plan and it was said that it would be active with the application of the Auto + Plan.

The deadline for this Auto+ Plan to come into force was January 1, 2026. However, weeks before it began to work, The dealers already indicated that they were not willing to advance the aid. Not, at least, if they had no guarantee of receiving the money within a reasonable period of time.

So, who is going to provide the aid? It is something that is yet to be confirmed and that we will not know for sure until the aid bases are officially published, which should happen in the coming days.

In Xataka we have contacted Ganvam (National Association of Vehicle, Repair and Spare Parts Sellers) who claim to have no confirmation of how this aid will be delivered. From Faconauto (Federation of Automotive Dealer Associations) yes, they have assured us that the aid can be obtained at the time of purchase but that the more specific details will arrive when the bases are presented.

A loan that was a matter of faith. The intention, therefore, is that the customer can finally leave the dealership being very clear about the price of the car. The concessionaires’ employers assure us that there is no signed commitment of the time that the State will have to deliver said aid and that this is something that we will only know when the bases for the aid are published.

Until now, manufacturers have been advancing help with an interest-free loan for 12 or 18 months (depending on the brand) in the hope that the client would receive the money before the bank received the payment of that fee, which can reach up to 4,500 euros. That is to say, it could be the case that the client ran out the deadline to return the aid without having received the money from the State. Or make a mistake in one of the bureaucratic processes, stay without the subsidy and see the final price of the vehicle increase in thousands of euros.

It has been assured that the money to be given to the customer will be retroactive and, therefore, can be received as long as the purchase has been made after January 1, 2026. It remains to be seen how long it will take to receive the aid. A problem that is not the first time that it happens.

400 million that are not 400 million. With this commitment to deliver the money to all retroactive operations, another problem opens up. 400 million euros have been reserved for the Auto+ Plan project. However, it is not clear how much money is left in the chest once said aid is managed. According to The Automotive Tribuneit is estimated that 231.29 million euros would have already been consumed.

Of the 400 million euros planned, 350 million are for individuals and 50 million euros are for companies. It is estimated that 214.19 million euros have already been consumed among individuals and 17.1 million in the case of companies. This means that, if activated now and continuing at the current sales rate, the Auto+ Plan could be active for just a few months before running out of funds.

Photo | Omoda and Jaecoo

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