Government extends Moves III plan, but its biggest problem remains unresolved

The MOVES III plan is designed to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles or some hybrid models, as well as the installation of charging stations. extended by the Spanish government until July 31, 2024.. The program was originally scheduled to end on December 31 of this year.

According to the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Issues, 290 million of the 1,200 reserved for this program are still available. –the number of which has increased a couple of times in recent years–. MITECO also claims that since the start of MOVES III, the number of applications has exceeded 250,000.

The expansion of this assistance was not accompanied by any changes in its criteria or administration. MOVES III will continue to be managed by the Autonomous Communities and the requirements to benefit from it will remain the same.

The big problem with MOVES III is still present.

This invariance bad news for the industry, which requires significant changes, first of all, in the way files are managed. Receiving assistance involves beginning a tedious bureaucratic process that can take more than a year before the assistance is credited to the buyer’s bank account. The procedures to be followed and the waiting periods also differ in each autonomous community.

On the other hand, assistance under the MOVES III plan calculated as capital gain on the income tax return for the year in which they are received, not the year in which they are claimed. Therefore, part of the assistance is always returned in the form of taxes. The problem, however, is not that assistance can be suspended depending on the economic situation. The problem is that this represents another step in a process that should, as in other countries, be much simpler.

Some voices in the sector argue that assistance is applied at the time of purchase, not months or even years after purchasing the car. This, according to experts, could help stimulate sales of electric vehicles in Spain, which continues to lag behind many European countries.

What requirements must be met?

The MOVES III plan offers assistance for the purchase of electric, hybrid or fuel cell vehicles, although it also subsidizes the installation of charging stations or the purchase of electric motorcycles.

In case of purchasing a car, the main requirements and assistance are as follows:

On the other hand, the government announced a new measure in 2023 that allows part of the price of an electric vehicle to be deducted from the income tax return, always meeting a number of requirements. This assistance complements the MOVES III Plan.