Belgium Will Charge Every Car Driver From May 2027 — EVs Pay €90

Driving across Belgium has been free for anyone in a car for as long as most drivers can remember. Unless you took the Liefkenshoek tunnel near Antwerp, you could cross the entire country — on your way to the North Sea, to France, to Germany — without paying anything. That ends on 1 May 2027.

From that date, Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels introduce a road vignette for all vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes. The three regions have agreed a single unified scheme rather than three competing ones, which spares drivers the prospect of buying separate passes to cross their own country.

What it costs

Short-term options exist for visitors and occasional users. In the Euro 4 category these run at €9 for one day, €12 for ten days, €19 for one month and €30 for two months. The equivalents for other emission classes have not been published yet.

Electric cars get a €10 discount against the mainstream rate — a gesture rather than an incentive. The wider structure is emissions-tiered rather than EV-favouring: the meaningful gap is the €25 between the oldest combustion cars and everything newer.

Not just motorways

The detail that will catch people out is coverage. This is not a motorway toll. The vignette applies across the complete network of regional and state roads — in Flanders alone that is roughly 7,000 kilometres, about 10% of the total road network. Taking the back roads to avoid the motorway will not avoid the charge.

Enforcement is automatic. The vignette is digital and tied to the registration plate, with camera-based number plate recognition doing the checking. There is no sticker to buy or display. Fines start at €70 once an initial grace period without sanctions expires.

Motorcycles, coaches, tractors, emergency service vehicles and military vehicles are exempt.

Belgians pay too, but not twice

The scheme is not aimed solely at foreign traffic, which is what makes it legally straightforward — EU proportionality rules make it difficult to charge transiting foreign drivers without charging domestic ones on the same terms. Belgian drivers will buy the vignette like everyone else.

Flanders is offsetting it. From 1 January 2027, four months before the vignette starts, the region reforms its annual vehicle tax with the stated aim of leaving the overall tax burden on Flemish motorists broadly unchanged. Whether that holds in practice for any individual driver depends on which vehicle they own.

For everyone else in Europe, this is a new line item on any drive through Belgium. It sits alongside a broader shift in how road use gets paid for as fuel duty revenue declines — the UK has already legislated a pay-per-mile charge on electric cars from April 2028. Belgium's approach is simpler and flatter: a fixed annual fee, tiered by emissions, with electric drivers paying slightly less rather than being exempted.