Germany's Bundesrat signed off on 25 September 2026 on removing the Umweltplakette requirement for cars carrying a German E-Kennzeichen. The change amends the 35th Federal Immission Control Regulation (35. BImSchV) and ends a piece of paperwork that has annoyed electric-car owners since low-emission zones arrived: a vehicle that emits no exhaust particulate has had to buy and display a sticker certifying that it emits very little exhaust particulate.
What the sticker was for
Germany has 36 Umweltzonen. Entering one legally means a green Plakette on the windscreen, and entering without one costs a €100 fine. The sticker itself is cheap but not free — roughly €5 to €20 depending on whether you order it from the ADAC, a testing organisation such as TÜV, Dekra, KÜS or GTÜ, or a licensed workshop.
From now on the E-Kennzeichen does that job on its own. The plate ending in "E", issued to battery-electric and qualifying plug-in hybrid cars, is accepted as proof of entitlement in its own right. The Federal Environment Ministry put the saving at about €6 million a year across owners and administration, and called the old arrangement "unnecessary double identification".
A narrower version of this exemption already applied in Bavaria and Berlin. The Bundesrat vote makes it federal. The same session also passed new liability rules for electric scooters, making operators liable for accidents regardless of fault, in line with other motor vehicles.
Neither the ministry statement nor electrive's report named the date on which the change starts applying. The vote is the last parliamentary step; the regulation takes effect on promulgation.
The exemption follows the plate, not the powertrain
This is the part that matters to anyone reading this outside Germany.
The E-Kennzeichen is a German registration. An electric car registered in Czechia, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland or anywhere else does not have one, and therefore is not covered.
German driving bans in Umweltzonen explicitly apply to foreign-registered vehicles, and the ADAC is unambiguous that a foreign EV still needs the green sticker. The €100 fine does not distinguish by nationality either.
| Car | Entering a German Umweltzone |
|---|---|
| German-registered EV with E-Kennzeichen | No sticker needed |
| Foreign-registered EV | Green Plakette still required |
| German EV without an E-Kennzeichen | Green Plakette still required |
The last row is worth a check of your own registration document. The E-Kennzeichen is optional in Germany — owners apply for it, usually to get parking or bus-lane privileges — so a German-registered Tesla whose owner never bothered is in the same position as a foreign one.
What European owners driving into Germany should do
For a German owner the answer is now slightly clearer than it was. The E-plate already carried municipal benefits that vary by city; it now also removes a recurring windscreen item and the risk of a fine when a sticker peels or a windscreen is replaced.
For everyone else, nothing changes. If you are driving to Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart or any of the other 33 zones in a car registered outside Germany, budget the €5 to €20 and put the sticker on the glass before you cross the border. Germany has tightened and loosened several EV-adjacent rules this year, and this one is a simplification that stops at the border.