Denmark's government will not freeze the registration tax on electric cars for a second year. Its finance bill proposal for 2027, first reported by TV 2 on 28 September 2026, lets the phase-in agreed in 2020 resume on 1 January. The price at which an electric car starts paying registration tax then falls from 419,300 to 366,200 Danish kroner, and the share of the calculated tax that electric cars pay rises from 40% to 48%.
The motoring organisation FDM calculates that a Tesla Model Y Long Range with all-wheel drive would cost nearly 28,000 kroner more if it is registered after New Year. What counts is the registration date, not the day the order was signed.
What changes on 1 January
The previous government's budget deal with the Conservatives froze the 2026 step, keeping the 2025 rules for another year. Under current law the next step applies unless parliament intervenes, and the new proposal does not intervene. TV 2 reports that the tax then rises by eight per cent a year until 2030, on a schedule that runs to 2036.
Cheaper cars are spared for now. FDM says electric cars at around 300,000 kroner or less are unaffected in 2027; TV 2's example, a 275,000-kroner Kia EV3, pays nothing until 2030. Above the line the bill grows quickly: Ritzau puts a 400,000-kroner car at just under 25,000 kroner, and FDM puts a 500,000-kroner car at about 45,000.
Where each Tesla lands
Tesla sells only the Model 3 and Model Y new in Denmark. At base prices before options:
| Version | Danish price | Against the new line |
|---|---|---|
| Model 3 RWD | 269,990 kroner | below |
| Model Y RWD | 304,990 kroner | below |
| Model 3 Premium Long Range RWD | 339,990 kroner | below |
| Model 3 Premium Long Range AWD | 359,990 kroner | 6,210 kroner below |
| Model Y Premium Long Range RWD | 364,990 kroner | 1,210 kroner below |
| Model Y Premium Long Range AWD | 404,990 kroner | above |
| Model 3 Performance | about 470,000 kroner | above |
| Model Y Performance | 494,990 kroner | above |
The Model Y prices are those Tesla set in April, as reported by meremobil.dk; the Model 3 prices come from the September list on teslahub.dk. The Model Y Performance sits close to FDM's 500,000-kroner example.
Why now, and what could still change
Tax and Growth Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt (Moderates) told TV 2 that "the carefree times in our economy are over". Buyers of expensive electric cars will pay more than in 2026, he said, but price competition keeps most family cars in the same tax band. The government wants to rework car taxation fundamentally, but only after an expert group chaired by Aarhus University economist Michael Svarer reports. It is due in the second half of 2026 and must model, among other options, a permanent abolition of the EV registration tax.
Mobility Denmark, the car industry's trade body, wants the freeze kept until then. "For a family, 10,000 or 28,000 kroner is not a small detail," managing director Mads Rørvig said. DI Bilbranchen called the rise an own goal. This year's freeze was written into the budget deal itself, so the coming negotiations can still change the outcome.
The market it lands on
Electric cars took a record 88.8% of Denmark's 20,026 new-car registrations in September, according to Mobility Denmark's figures from bilstatistik.dk. Leaving out cars registered to businesses, Ritzau put the share at 97.5%. Tesla registered 2,299 cars, and the Model Y (1,226) and Model 3 (1,073) were the country's two best-selling cars. FDM attributes part of that to Tesla's quarter-end deliveries of China-built Model 3s and a 0% financing offer.
That took Tesla to 9,989 Danish registrations for 2026, more than its 9,457 in all of 2025, though it is still sixth among brands with 6.6% of the market. Tesla passed 100,000 cars on Danish roads the same month.
FDM expects buyers of cars that will be taxed to bring their purchases forward; among Teslas, that means the all-wheel-drive and Performance versions. Norway's budget, presented nine days after Denmark's proposal, halves its EV VAT exemption from the same date.