In brief

  • From 8 October 2026, an electric truck pays a quarter of the per-kilometre toll, while a truck with a combustion engine pays exactly what it paid before. Order no. 959/2026 replaces the annex containing the rates and adds a fourth column to the table, for electric vehicles: 12 bani per kilometre of motorway in the category above 12 tonnes, against 48 bani for the EURO VI class and 62 bani for the EURO III-0 classes, a ban being a hundredth of a leu.
  • Who is concerned. Operators running goods vehicles with a maximum authorised mass above 3.5 tonnes on the national road network, wherever the TollRo toll is collected. The rovinietă, the charge paid for a period of time rather than per kilometre, is not touched by this order, and a driver in a passenger car pays no TollRo.
  • The order also repairs a cross-reference that closed on nothing. Article 1(4) of the 2025 order spoke of „actualizarea prevăzută la alin. (4)”, the update provided for in that very paragraph, which means the text referred back to itself, so the rounding rule was attached to nothing at all. It now refers to paragraph (3), where the annual indexation formula sits. The repair arrives 54 days before the month in which the first indexation is carried out.
Act: Order of the interim minister of transport and infrastructure no. 959/2026 amending Order of the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure no. 1.925/2025 approving the categories of vehicles and the level of the unit rate
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) (Monitorul Oficial al României), Part I, no. 847 of 8 October 2026, pages 3-4
In force from: 8 October 2026, the date of publication, because the order does not set a later date in its own text

From 8 October 2026, an electric truck above 12 tonnes pays 12 bani for every kilometre of motorway or express road, instead of the 48 bani paid by one that meets the EURO VI emission standard. The figure comes from the new annex to Order of the interim minister of transport and infrastructure no. 959/2026, which replaces the rate table of Order no. 1.925/2025. The charge the reduction applies to is not the rovinietă but the toll, known commercially as TollRo: the amount owed per kilometre travelled, which goods vehicles above 3.5 tonnes have paid since 1 October 2026, together with the implementing rules of Law no. 226/2023. The rovinietă, the charge paid for a period of time, remains the one for passenger vehicles and for goods vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes and is not changed by this order.

The table has three vehicle categories, divided by maximum authorised mass, and two road categories. In category I, that is above 3.5 and up to 7.5 tonnes inclusive, an electric vehicle pays 4 bani per kilometre of motorway or express road and 2 bani per kilometre of national road. In category II, above 7.5 and below 12 tonnes, the figures are 7 bani and 3 bani. In category III, from 12 tonnes upwards, 12 bani and 6 bani. For comparison, the same vehicles with a combustion engine in the EURO VI class pay 17 and 8 bani in category I, 29 and 14 bani in category II, 48 and 24 bani in category III. The oldest ones, in the EURO III-0 classes, pay 22 and 11 bani, 37 and 19 bani, and 62 and 31 bani respectively.

The figure for electric vehicles is arrived at by calculation. Note 7 of the annex states that their rate is the rate of the EURO VI class reduced by 75% and rounded to the ban by disregarding fractions, and that the operation is redone after each annual indexation, starting from the new level of the EURO VI class. We redid the calculation for all six cells: a quarter of 17 bani gives 4.25 bani, hence 4; a quarter of 29 bani gives 7.25, hence 7; a quarter of 48 gives exactly 12. All six come out at the figure printed in the table, so the new column can be verified in full from the published order.

The second part of the order is shorter and easily goes unnoticed. Article 1(4) of the 2025 order read as follows: „Tariful unitar, rezultat în urma actualizării prevăzute la alin. (4), se rotunjește la nivel de ban”, meaning that the unit rate resulting from the update provided for in that very paragraph is rounded to the ban. The reference pointed back to the very paragraph that contained it, while the annual indexation formula sits in paragraph (3). The new wording changes one single thing, the number in the cross-reference, and ties the rounding rule to the formula it was meant to accompany from the start. Indexation is carried out in December, on the consumer price index for the October-September interval, and applies from 1 January of the following year, so the repair comes just before the mechanism is used for the first time.

The order also defines what counts as an electric vehicle: a registered motor vehicle fitted with at least one electrical energy storage device, battery or capacitor, which uses one or more electric motors for propulsion instead of an internal combustion engine, together with the semi-trailer or the trailers it tows. Because these vehicles have no pollutant emission class assigned to them, note 9 settles the classification through an equivalence: the class is deemed to be specified by the mention of the electrical energy source in field P.3 of the registration certificate or in the equivalent document of the state of registration.

The third amendment brought by the annex is a single sentence added to note 4. The ceiling in the law says that the unit rate for a vehicle may not exceed by more than 100% the rate for the equivalent vehicle meeting the strictest emission standards, without specifying which one that is. Note 4 now states that the reference level is the rate of the EURO VI class. The sentence looks technical, but it is the one that keeps the ceiling standing now that a column for electric vehicles exists.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is a cost difference measured per year, not per kilometre. A category III vehicle covering 100,000 kilometres of motorway in a year pays 48,000 lei if it is EURO VI and 12,000 lei if it is electric, a difference of 36,000 lei. Against a vehicle in the EURO III-0 classes, which would pay 62,000 lei for the same kilometres, the difference rises to 50,000 lei. On national roads the figures are halved: 24,000, 6,000 and 18,000 lei.

The second effect is that nothing becomes more expensive. The three columns for vehicles with combustion engines carry exactly the same figures in the new annex as in the 2025 annex, down to the last ban. The order is not a rate increase but an addition: it places a new column next to the existing ones.

The third effect is procedural. Classification requires no application, no approval and no separate registration. It is read from the registration certificate, field P.3, which the operator already holds. For vehicles registered in other states the equivalent document is used, so the rule works for foreign hauliers as well, as Article 1(2) of Law no. 226/2023 requires.

The fourth effect has to do with the calendar. The level of rates published on 8 October 2026 applies for 85 days. Under Article 1 of the 2025 order, the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration updates the rate in December and brings it to the attention of users through the media and through its own website, and the updated level applies from 1 January 2027. From that day on, the figures in the Official Gazette of Romania are no longer the figures in force.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The annex of 10 October 2025 had a table with three rate columns, all of them for emission classes, and six explanatory notes. The annex of 8 October 2026 has four columns and nine notes. There are exactly five differences: the new column for electric vehicles, the sentence added to note 4 on the reference level for the 100% ceiling, and notes 7, 8 and 9, which establish how the electric rate is calculated, what an electric vehicle is and how classification is done in the absence of a EURO class.

In the articles of the order a single paragraph changed, and inside it a single figure. Up to and including 7 October 2026, the rounding rule referred to its own paragraph. The other eight paragraphs of Article 1, Article 2 and Article 3, including the date on which the 2025 order entered into force, remain untouched.

More important for whoever pays: up to 7 October 2026 the annex had no column at all for electric vehicles, while Article 1(2) tied the rate to the pollutant emission class, which these vehicles do not have. The toll was already being collected, from 1 October 2026, so there were seven days in which an electric truck was driving on a tolled network without the table providing any figure for it. The new order closes the situation for the future, but says nothing about those seven days.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The reduction is written as a percentage of the rate of the EURO VI class, not as a fixed amount, so it survives the annual indexation without a new order being needed every December.
  • The difference in money is large and predictable: 36 bani per kilometre of motorway in the category above 12 tonnes, that is 36,000 lei over 100,000 kilometres covered in a year, compared with a EURO VI vehicle.
  • The rates for the three emission classes remain identical to those of 2025, so the order hides no increase for existing fleets.
  • Classification is done on a document the vehicle already carries on board, field P.3 of the registration certificate, with no application, approval or separate registration, and it works the same way for vehicles registered in other states.
  • The circular cross-reference in Article 1(4) is repaired before the first indexation that would have needed it, not after.

What remains a problem

  • The 75% reduction is not 75% in practice. Rounding by disregarding fractions takes it to 76.47% in category I on motorways and to 78.57% in category II on national roads, and the real size of the reduction depends on how small the rate it starts from is.
  • The seven days between 1 and 7 October 2026, in which the toll was being collected while the annex had no column for electric vehicles, are left without any transitional provision.
  • Article 1(2) remains unamended and still says that the rate is set according to maximum authorised mass and pollutant emission class. The bridge to electric vehicles sits in an equivalence in note 9 of the annex, not in the articles of the order.
  • The EURO V-IV and EURO III-0 columns cannot be reconstructed from the published figures. In three of the twelve derived cells, the real increase over EURO VI is 25%, 35.71% and 37.50%, not the 15% and 30% announced by note 3.
  • The level published in the Official Gazette of Romania applies only until 31 December 2026. The December indexation is announced on the website of the company that administers the infrastructure, not through a published act.

Practical advice

  1. Check field P.3 of the registration certificate of every electric vehicle in the fleet. It is the only basis on which classification in the new column is made, under note 9 of the annex, so a missing or unclear entry there is reason enough to be charged at the level of the EURO VI class.
  2. When you check an invoice yourself, multiply the rate for the category by whole kilometres. Article 12(2)(b) of Law no. 226/2023 says that distance is expressed in whole units of kilometres, so fractions of a kilometre do not enter the calculation.
  3. Do not confuse the two charges. The toll is owed per kilometre and only for goods vehicles above 3.5 tonnes, while the rovinietă is paid for a period of time and has remained in place for passenger vehicles and for goods up to 3.5 tonnes.
  4. Bear in mind that the tolled network is not the whole network. Under the definition in Article 2(c) of Law no. 226/2023, sections of national road inside the built-up area of municipalities, between the entry and exit signs, fall outside the network on which the toll is collected.
  5. If you paid the charge for an electric vehicle between 1 and 7 October 2026, keep the payment documents. The order provides nothing for that interval, and any settlement would need proof of the amount paid and of the class at which the vehicle was charged.
  6. After December 2026, check the level of the rate on the website of the company that administers the infrastructure, not in the annex published on 8 October 2026. The annual indexation is carried out there, and the figures in the Official Gazette of Romania remain the valid ones only until 31 December 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Which charge does this order amend? Is it the rovinietă?
No. Note 1 of the annex says that the unit rate represents the toll, commercially named TollRo, per unit of kilometre. It is owed only by goods vehicles with a maximum authorised mass above 3.5 tonnes travelling on the tolled network, and mixed-transport vehicles are treated as goods vehicles. The rovinietă is the other charge in Law no. 226/2023, it is paid for a period of time and it is not touched by this order.
What does an electric truck actually pay per kilometre?
Four bani on a motorway or express road and two bani on a national road in the category above 3.5 and up to 7.5 tonnes inclusive. Seven bani and three bani in the category above 7.5 and below 12 tonnes. Twelve bani and six bani in the category from 12 tonnes upwards. The amounts include value added tax.
Is the charge going up for diesel trucks?
No. The eighteen figures in the EURO VI, EURO V-IV and EURO III-0 columns are, in the new annex, identical to those in the annex approved on 10 October 2025. The only new column is the one for electric vehicles.
How is an electric vehicle classified, if it has no pollutant emission class?
Through note 9 of the annex: the class is deemed to be specified by the mention concerning the electrical energy source entered in field P.3 of the registration certificate or in the equivalent document of the state of registration. These vehicles are charged the rate in the „Vehicule electrice” column, that is electric vehicles.
What was repaired in Article 1 of the 2025 order?
A cross-reference that pointed back to itself. Paragraph (4) provided for rounding to the ban of the rate „rezultat în urma actualizării prevăzute la alin. (4)”, although the updating formula sits in paragraph (3). The new wording refers to paragraph (3), so the rounding rule applies to the result of the annual indexation, as the intention visible in the text was.
How long do the figures in the annex remain valid?
Until 31 December 2026, that is 85 days from publication. Article 1 of the 2025 order provides for an annual update in December, according to the consumer price index for the October-September interval, and the updated level applies from 1 January of the following year and is brought to the attention of users through the media and through the website of the company that administers the road infrastructure.

Editorial analysis

The order solves two real problems and solves them with the right instruments. The first is a hole in the table: up to 7 October 2026, the annex set the rate exclusively by pollutant emission class, and an electric truck has no emission class. The toll was already being collected from 1 October 2026, so there were seven days in which a vehicle was driving on a tolled network without a figure written for it. The second is the circular cross-reference in Article 1(4), which would have become a practical problem for the first time in December 2026, at the first indexation: without a rounding rule tied to the formula, a rate of 48 bani multiplied by the price index would have produced a figure with three decimals, and the toll is calculated on whole kilometres, so the difference would have shown up directly on the invoice. The repair arrives 54 days before the beginning of December. The solution chosen for electric vehicles is also well built: a percentage of the rate of the EURO VI class, not a fixed amount, so the reduction recalculates itself at every indexation, without a new order every year.

The announced reduction is not, however, the one that applies. Note 7 says „redus cu 75%”, a reduction of three quarters, but it adds rounding by disregarding fractions, and the two rules together give a different result from the percentage written down. We redid all six cells: in category I on motorways, 4 bani against 17 means a reduction of 76.47%; in category II on national roads, 3 bani against 14 means 78.57%; in category II on motorways, 7 bani against 29 means 75.86%; in the other three cases the reduction is exactly 75%. What happens over time is more interesting still. For category I on national roads, the rate of the EURO VI class has to rise from 8 to 12 bani, an increase of 50%, before the electric rate goes up by a single ban. Just before that jump, at 11 bani against 2, the real reduction reaches 81.82%. For category III on motorways, by contrast, the jump comes after an increase of only 8.33%. The same rule therefore produces a reduction that swings between 75% and almost 82%, and the lighter the vehicle, the larger the reduction. That is not a public policy decision, it is an effect of the rounding.

The second observation concerns what cannot be verified. Note 3 says that the rate of the EURO V-IV class is that of the EURO VI class increased by 15%, and that of the EURO III-0 class increased by 30%. From the published figures, the relation does not hold in three of the twelve derived cells: in category I on national roads, 10 bani against 8 is an increase of 25%, not 15%, and 11 bani against 8 is 37.50%, not 30%; in category II on national roads, 19 bani against 14 is 35.71%. The table is not wrong. For each row we looked for an unrounded base rate which, rounded to the ban, would yield all three published figures, and it exists in every case: in category I on national roads, any value between 8.27 and 8.49 bani does the job. The problem is that this base rate appears nowhere in the Official Gazette of Romania, so a haulier checking an invoice with note 3 in hand gets a different number in a quarter of the derived cells and has nothing from which to find out which of the two is correct. By contrast, the new column for electric vehicles can be reconstructed exactly, in all six cells, from the published figures.

The most important sentence in the order is also the least visible one. Article 12(6) of Law no. 226/2023 caps the unit rate for a vehicle at no more than 100% above the rate for the equivalent vehicle meeting the strictest emission standards, without saying which one that is. As long as the table had only columns for EURO classes, the answer read itself. From the moment a column appears for vehicles which, by their own note 9, have no emission class assigned, a reader in good faith could take the electric rate as the reference, and then the rate of the EURO III-0 class in the category above 12 tonnes, 62 bani against 12, would exceed it by 416.7%, not by 100%. The sentence added to note 4, which fixes the EURO VI class as the reference level, is exactly what keeps the statutory ceiling applicable now that the new column exists. It is the right choice, but its natural place was in the articles of the order, not in a note below the table, because it interprets a limit set by statute.

What should be changed

  • The base rate, unrounded, written into the annex. An additional column, or a note giving the value from which the EURO VI class is calculated, would make the table verifiable. As published now, in three of the twelve derived cells the calculation under note 3 gives a result different from the figure in the table, and the reader has no way of establishing where the difference comes from.
  • The same rounding rule throughout the order. The rule in Article 1(4) rounds up fractions of half a ban and above, while note 7 of the annex disregards any fraction. If note 7 used the rule in Article 1, the reduction for electric vehicles would stay at 75% in every cell, instead of varying between 75% and 81.82% depending on how small the rate it starts from is.
  • A transitional provision for 1-7 October 2026. In those seven days the toll was already being collected, while the annex had no column for electric vehicles. A paragraph saying what is owed for the interval would clarify whether the operators of these vehicles paid correctly at the level of the EURO VI class or are entitled to a settlement, instead of leaving the answer to administrative practice.
  • Article 1(2) amended together with the annex. It still says that the rate is set according to maximum authorised mass and pollutant emission class, although the annex now adds a category of vehicles which, by note 9, has no such class. If the paragraph also mentioned electric vehicles, classification would rest in the articles of the order rather than in an equivalence in the annex, and it would no longer depend on a legal fiction.
  • The updated level published every year in the Official Gazette of Romania. Indexation is left, by Article 1, to the company that administers the road infrastructure, with users informed through the media and through its own website. The consequence is that the annex published on 8 October 2026 has a lifespan of 85 days, and that from 1 January 2027 the official source for a rate approved by ministerial order becomes the website of a commercial company. A short order every December, or at least a publication of the updated level, would keep the rate where it can be cited.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 847 of 8 October 2026, pages 3-4 16 pages PDF, 110 KB the act starts on page 3

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.