E-Auto-Förderung 2026: Wer bekommt wie viel Kaufprämie?

The e-car funding is fixed: Retroactively from January 1, 2026, private households will receive until 2029 (or as long as the budget of three billion euros lasts) when buying one new E-cars or plug-in hybrids receive a hefty subsidy. This depends on the amount of taxable household income and whether there are underage children living in the household.

In the best case, that’s 6,000 euros – but this only applies if you buy/lease a fully electric car, your household earns less than 45,000 euros per year in taxable income and two or more underage children live there. This should give buyers and especially families with lower incomes the chance to afford an environmentally friendly electric car.

Whether the car was produced in the EU or not is irrelevant: all new vehicles registered domestically for the first time are eligible.

The purchase of one used electric cars or PHEVs Unfortunately it is not funded (see our comment).

CHIP funding calculator: It shows how much money you get for your electric car

Take advantage our funding calculator and find out quickly and easily how high your e-car bonus is. All you have to do is fill out a few fields in the Excel list. The tool immediately spits out the amount of funding for you.

Gross salary is non-taxable annual income

Important when considering: It is not the gross annual salary that counts, but rather the so-called taxable income, which you will find in your tax assessment. This is crucial, after all, this is the amount once you have deducted business expenses, other expenses and allowances from your gross salary.

Even if you have little or nothing to sell, The tax office grants flat rates heresuch as a flat rate of 1,230 euros for advertising costs for all employees, home office flat rates of 1,260 euros and a flat rate for travel to work.

In addition to married couples who are assessed jointly in the tax assessment, they also have to registered civil partnerships and people who live in one marriage-like community live, be careful that they don’t break the income limit: Because The taxable income is added together here.

Pensioners without an income tax return can present a pension receipt certificate and a self-declaration of other income.

Leasing electric cars are also supported

The state not only supports the purchase or financing, but also the leasing of low-emission cars. The positive: The funding significantly reduces the leasing rates because the lessor includes your bonus as a down payment in the calculation.

But be careful! There are now attractive offers for electric cars and PHEVs for well under 100 euros on leasing platforms such as Leasingmarkt.de. But this only applies to the funding and therefore the full deposit of 6,000 euros. So take a close look at the leasing offers and have the actual monthly rate calculated if you are not entitled to the full electric car subsidy.

Minimum holding period for funding: 3 years

You have to have the car at least 36 months from initial registration own. This is usually not an obstacle when making a purchase. When it comes to leasing, only offers with this term are possible. Unless you know when you sign the contract that you will be buying out the car after leasing. However, not every lessor offers this. So if you have found the car you want with a leasing term of less than 36 months, negotiate a fixed purchase rate before signing the contract.

Promotion of plug-in hybrids and range extenders

There is also funding for combustion engines with an additional electric motor that can be recharged. The same applies to electric cars with small combustion engines, i.e. range extenders. The main thing is that the cars have a plug for charging. However, according to the manufacturer, the PHEV or range extender must

• at least one in electric range of 80 kilometers create and
• may at most 60 grams of CO₂ per kilometer expel.

The promotion only valid until June 30, 2027.

Hybrids without plugs are excluded from funding.

The following table shows exactly how much funding is available for PHEVs and range extenders.

How to apply for funding

The application process is still ongoing BAFA not possible. The new application portal is expected to open in May 2026. We will find out more when the funding guidelines are announced in February. After your car has been registered, you then have a maximum of one year to submit the application.

You need these documents:

• Vehicle registration certificate or registration certificate Part I
• Federal ID card or ID card app
• Your last two tax assessments. These must not be older than 3 years.
• Copy/scan of your purchase or leasing contract

This is what CHIP thinks about the new e-car funding for 2026

The new e-car funding solves a problem with the subsidies that the traffic light government paid out until the end of 2023 – it simply ignores two other problems. While the traffic light had to accept the accusation of subsidizing the third or fourth car for the banker family, it is now low-income households that can receive the highest subsidy. In extreme cases (Dacia Spring, Citroën ë-C3) the Purchase price falls below 10,000 euros. In addition, speculators are now deterred by the minimum holding period of 36 months.

The announced measures are even more serious only for new cars apply. This has a double impact on the used car market: Young used electric cars will only be sold at even greater discounts if new cars are suddenly up to 6,000 euros cheaper.

The used electrical market has been a problem child so far – Dealers are finding it very difficult to get rid of second-hand electric cars at affordable prices. So, dear federal government, if you really want to help the car market, then stop the hybrid funding Better give the money to support used car buyers out of!

Turbo depreciation in six years

If you own your own company, benefit from the new one Turbo depreciation and write profusely in the first year 75 percent the acquisition costs are tax deducted. In the following five years it will be 10, 5, 5, 3 and 2 percent. This turbo depreciation applies to all newly purchased electric vehicles until the end of 2027 and can also apply to used cars.