With about 198,000 new registrations between January and November 2025, Portugal is one of Europe’s smaller car markets. Yet it stands out due to its steady BEV growth since 2019, maintaining a share above the European average since 2023. Between January and November 2025, BEVs accounted for 23% of new car registrations, up 3 percentage points from the same period in 2024 and 5 percentage points above the European average. In October and November, the BEV share reached a record high of 31%, which represents an increase of 7 and 8 percentage points, respectively, compared with the same period in 2024.
The country has a long history of supporting BEV adoption, including through annual programs offering purchase incentives exclusively for all-electric vehicles almost every year since 2010. In December 2025, the government launched a 2025/2026 incentive program effective retroactively from January 1, 2025. Private individuals can apply for a €4,000 subsidy for new BEVs priced up to €38,500 or new BEVs with more than five seats priced up to €55,000, provided individuals scrap an internal combustion engine vehicle older than 10 years. The program’s 2,200 available spots for private beneficiaries were claimed within hours.
In addition to purchase subsidies, which are currently limited to private buyers and non-profit social organizations, both private and corporate BEV owners benefit from various tax incentives, including full exemption from registration and road taxes as well as from the corporate tax on vehicle expenses.3 In 2025, corporate buyers accounted for 84% of new BEV registrations. The BEV share among corporate car registrations reached 25%, substantially higher than the 17% share observed in the private segment.4 While PHEV owners do not qualify for purchase subsidies, they do benefit from tax incentives, although generally at lower levels than for BEVs. Corporate PHEVs accounted for 87% of total PHEV registrations and represented 17% of corporate car registrations.
