Romania Wants Its Rabla EV Grant Only for EU-Built Cars From 2027. That Leaves Out the Shanghai-Built Model 3.

Romania's new government has written into its programme that the Rabla scrappage grant will pay only for cars built in the European Union from 2027 to 2030. The line runs straight through Tesla's line-up. The Model Y, which Tesla builds for EU markets at Grünheide near Berlin, is inside it. The Model 3, which every European buyer gets from Shanghai, is outside it.

The plan is in the governing programme that Prime Minister Luca Niculescu submitted to Parliament on 15 October 2026: "we run the Rabla programme in 2027–2030 only for vehicles made in the EU, with a calendar announced in the first quarter of each year", Economedia reported. On 3 November, Environment Minister Natalia Intotero confirmed the direction at a press conference, as Digi24 reported, citing Agerpres. She wants the 2027 edition to open on time, with a budget agreed with manufacturers and dealers from the start and "much bigger" than this year's 300 million lei (about €56 million). In earlier years the programme had 1.2 billion lei.

What Rabla pays today

Euro figures use the European Central Bank's rate of 3 November.

The 2026 programme has no origin rule, so Teslas qualify. In August, a Romanian reviewer put the Model 3 Standard, listed at €36,990, at €29,600 after Tesla's discount and the grant. Demand still outruns the money. A top-up session opened at 10:00 on 3 November with 35.4 million lei of unspent funds, 9.2 million of it for electric cars and plug-in hybrids, and that share was gone within five minutes, Spotmedia reported.

Why it matters for Tesla in Romania

The Model 3 is the Tesla the rule leaves out, and it is the one Romanians buy most. It was the country's best-selling electric car in October with 263 registrations, against 126 for the Model Y, and Tesla was Romania's top electric brand both for the month and for the year so far, as TeslAnt reported. "Made in Europe" conditions on public money draw the same line between the two cars elsewhere.

Tesla is not the only brand affected. Two days before the programme was published, Renault's chief executive François Provost complained that cars imported from outside Europe received the same subsidy as cars built in Romania, where Renault employs about 10,000 people, Spotmedia reported. As written, the rule also leaves out the China-built Dacia Spring, the Dacia models built in Morocco and Turkey, and China-built models from brands such as BYD and MG.

What the 2027 rules still have to settle

The wording is already softer than the programme's. The programme says "only"; on 3 November Intotero called EU-built cars a "priority" for 2027, "mainly" from EU countries. The ministry drafted an origin condition once before, for 2026, with a broader list that also covered the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland, Turkey and Morocco. It dropped that condition in July, saying the extra procedures it needed at EU level would have delayed the programme by at least three months.

Intotero wants Parliament to approve the 2027 budget by the end of 2026, with work on the rules at the Environment Fund (AFM) starting in January. The programme promises each year's calendar in the first quarter. The 2026 ecoticket has no origin condition: a buyer who secured one gets the full amount on a Model 3.