Who can apply for the E-Auto-Förderung

Who can apply

Applicants are natural persons aged 18 or over with their main residence in Germany, on whom a qualifying car has been registered. Their taxable household annual income may not exceed €80,000, plus €5,000 for each funding-relevant child, and at most €90,000.

An applicant may authorise another person to apply. Persons for whose assets insolvency proceedings have been applied for or opened are not entitled to apply, and neither are persons who have given or must give an asset disclosure under the Code of Civil Procedure or the Fiscal Code. The grant is given only once per person and only once for the same vehicle.

BAFA's eligibility page adds that the applicant is the holder of the eligible vehicle and must be entered as holder in the registration certificate for the 36-month minimum holding period.

Household and income

A household is one person or several persons who form a lasting residential and economic unit. Working children who live in the dwelling are not taken into account. For two unmarried adults with the same main residence who are not in a registered partnership, a marriage-like partnership is presumed, unless a self-declaration makes credible that they permanently keep separate households economically.

The taxable household annual income is the sum of the incomes of the applicant and of the spouse, registered partner or marriage-like partner who lives in the household. For each contributing person, the income counted is the average of the taxable incomes shown in the two most recent income tax assessments at the time of application; the assessments may not be older than three calendar years. The taxable income shown in the assessment, within the meaning of section 2(5) sentence 1 of the Income Tax Act, is decisive.

Funding-relevant children

A funding-relevant child is a child who lives in the applicant's household, for whom there is an entitlement to child benefit, and who had not turned 18 when the car was first registered. The number of such children raises the income limit and sets the column used in the amount table.

The vehicle and the purchase or lease

The grant is for buying or leasing a new electric passenger car (class M1) that is registered in Germany for the first time, has never been registered anywhere before and is assigned to the applicant's private assets. Vehicles held as business assets are not covered.

This page covers battery-electric cars. A purely battery-electric vehicle has exclusively electric machines as energy converters and energy storage that can at least be recharged from outside the vehicle. The guideline also covers externally rechargeable hybrid electric vehicles and fuel-cell vehicles; they are not described here. It does not matter in which EU member state the new car was purchased.

BAFA's checklist adds, for the first registration on the applicant, that there must be no earlier day registration, no factory registration elsewhere and no demonstration vehicle.

Conditions after approval

The car may not already have been funded by the E-Auto-Förderung or a comparable state funding in another EU member state; for parallel applications the earlier approval counts. It may not be funded at the same time with public money of another funder, unless that funder has an administrative agreement with the federal environment ministry; an earlier application to such a body is harmless but must be notified.

The car must stay registered to the applicant in Germany for at least 36 months (minimum holding period) and may not be put into business assets within that period.

A shorter holding period must be notified without delay, and the approving authority decides at its due discretion on partial or full repayment. A reversal of the purchase or lease, a rescission of the vehicle transaction or a comparable case must also be notified without delay, and the authority must then demand full repayment with interest. A reversal under statutory warranty rights does not lead to repayment if an equivalent eligible replacement vehicle is registered within six months.

Dated rules

The funding guideline took effect on 19 May 2026 and expires on 31 December 2029. If the budgeted funds are used up, no further funding can be approved. There is no legal entitlement to the grant, which is subject to the availability of the budgeted funds.