English:Spain at the Electric Crossroads: Subsidies Falling, Fines Rising, and a Green Future in the Balance

Spain’s transition toward sustainable mobility is going through a critical moment, marked by a palpable contradiction in public policies.
On the one hand, European and national legislation is strongly pushing toward a zero-emission vehicle fleet, setting binding goals and deadlines. On the other hand, the Government has announced a budget cut in direct subsidies for electric car purchases—a blow to a key incentive for citizens. This seemingly contradictory decision tightens the rope of a transition that needs both public momentum and citizen buy-in.
The heart of the problem lies in the consumer’s wallet. Programs like MOVES III, which subsidized up to 7,000 euros for the purchase of an electric vehicle, have been a fundamental catalyst. Cutting or eliminating them means, in practice, widening the already significant price gap between combustion and electric vehicles.
For many families and self-employed workers, this subsidy was what balanced the scales, making the green option viable. Without it, the risk of a sales slowdown is real and threatens to cool a market that still needs incentives to truly take off.
While the end consumer hesitates, car manufacturers are watching the horizon with growing concern.
The European Union imposes targets for reducing average fleet emissions, with million-euro fines for each gram of CO2 exceeded. The most effective tool to meet these goals is precisely selling more zero-emission vehicles. If the Spanish market shrinks due to lack of subsidies, manufacturers will face the dilemma of either paying hefty fines or redirecting their scarce and valuable electric vehicles to other countries with greater incentives, leaving Spain even further behind in the electric race.
What, then, is behind the government’s decision? The executive cites reasons of fiscal sustainability and the need to prioritize spending on other critical infrastructure, such as the charging point network, whose insufficiency is another major barrier.
The philosophy seems to be shifting toward subsidizing collective infrastructure rather than individual vehicles. However, this change in strategy, perhaps sensible in the long term, clashes directly with the urgency of legal deadlines and the reality of a still-reluctant consumer. There appears to be a lack of coordination between the “what” (the objectives) and the “how” (the instruments to achieve them).
The crossroads is profound. Spain needs urgent and realistic dialogue among the administration, the sector, and citizens to align goals, resources, and timelines.
A successful transition cannot depend on perpetual subsidies, but nor can it be achieved by withdrawing them prematurely. A credible and stable plan is required, gradually combining demand incentives, massive deployment of charging infrastructure, support for local industry, and shared mobility formulas.
The risk of not doing so is paying a double price: that of fines for non-compliance and, even more seriously, that of missing the opportunity to modernize transportation and improve air quality in our cities. The electric future is at stake, and it cannot be left half-charged.