In brief

  • The Ministry of Transport has published the rules under which it will share out 299 million euro from the Modernisation Fund for electric trucks, locomotives and vessels. The money is awarded by bidding between applicants, not on a first come first served basis, and whoever asks for less per vehicle scores higher.
  • A company can receive at most 18 million euro and can buy at most 10 vehicles. The State covers up to 100% of the eligible cost, but the eligible cost is not the price of the electric vehicle, it is the difference between that price and the price of an equivalent diesel truck.
  • The guide does not contain the date and time when the call opens and closes. It only provides that the first procedures are to be launched within 30 days of publication, that is by 4 October 2026, and that the actual timetable will appear on the ministry’s website.
Act: Order no. 824/2026 of the acting Minister of Transport and Infrastructure approving the applicant’s guide on support for investment in the purchase of zero emission vehicles for road and rail freight transport and for maritime and inland waterway transport of passengers and freight
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 751 of 4 September 2026, the annex in Official Gazette of Romania no. 751 bis of 4 September 2026
In force from: 4 September 2026, the date of publication

A haulier who wants European money for an electric truck knows from 4 September 2026 exactly what conditions have to be met, but does not yet know how long there is to file the application. Order no. 824/2026 of the acting Minister of Transport and Infrastructure approves the applicant’s guide for the 299 million euro scheme financed from the Modernisation Fund, the same scheme whose exchange rate for calculation was changed in August 2026. The guide runs to 177 pages and was published separately, in issue 751 bis of the Official Gazette of Romania.

The money is split across three sub-measures. Road freight transport gets 130 million euro, rail freight transport 90 million, and maritime and inland waterway transport of passengers and freight 79 million. At the InforEuro rate for June 2026, which the guide fixes at 5.2481 lei, the total comes to 1,569,181,900 lei, almost one and a half billion.

Not everyone who buys an electric vehicle is in the scheme. You have to be a transport operator with a valid licence or transport certificate, registered with the trade register in Romania, under one of the NACE codes 4920 for rail, 4941 for road, 5010, 5020, 5030 or 5040 for maritime and inland waterway transport. The size of the company does not matter, micro enterprises and large companies compete in the same procedure. On the road side, only heavy goods vehicles are financed, with a gross mass of at least 3.5 tonnes, powered by an electric battery rechargeable from an external source, that is categories N2 and N3. On the rail side, the guide says explicitly that only traction units are financed, meaning locomotives, not wagons.

The part most applicants get wrong is what exactly the State pays for. The aid intensity is up to 100%, which sounds like full financing, but the percentage applies to the eligible cost, and the eligible cost is defined as the difference between the purchase price of the zero emission vehicle and the price of an ordinary diesel or electric vehicle in the same category, one that meets the European standards in force and would have been bought anyway, without the aid. Both prices are taken net of VAT, and the applicant has to submit at least two price offers for each of the two vehicles, the electric one and the reference one. If an electric truck costs 300,000 euro and the diesel equivalent 120,000, the eligible cost is 180,000 euro, not 300,000. The rest is covered by the company from its own capital, reinvested profit, an intragroup loan or a bank loan, and VAT is never reimbursed.

Selection is a reverse auction. Of the 100 points, 85 go to the amount of aid requested per vehicle: whoever asks for the least gets 85 points, whoever asks for the most gets zero, and the rest fall linearly between those two extremes. The other 15 points measure how much of last year’s mileage was run in Romania. Above 70% brings 15 points, between 50% and 70% brings 10 points, between 40% and 49% brings 5 points, and below 40% brings none. There is no clarification stage in the technical and economic evaluation, the score is based strictly on what was filed.

What it changes in practice

From 4 September 2026 the 30 day deadline runs within which the ministry has to launch the first procedures, so by 4 October 2026 at the latest. There will be five separate biddings, not one: one for N2 trucks, one for N3, one for rail operators under NACE code 4920, one for the purchase of vessels and one for the replacement of vessels.

A company that enters the scheme mortgages its next five years of operation. The durability period is 5 years from commissioning, during which the vehicle cannot be sold, the activity cannot cease, and the percentage of kilometres run in Romania cannot fall below what was undertaken at the application stage. The percentage is monitored for each vehicle separately, reported every year by 31 March, and if it is not met the ministry recovers the aid with interest. Not part of the aid, the aid.

Anyone applying for replacement financing has one more obligation on the clock: within 60 days of taking delivery of the new vehicle they have to prove that the old one has been scrapped, otherwise the money is recovered. The replaced vehicle must have been owned and operated by the company for at least a year, and the exception for a vehicle not yet owned requires a bilateral promise of sale at the application stage and the new registration document before the contract is signed.

Project documents are kept for 10 years from the completion of implementation, twice as long as the durability period. The money can be taken in advance, the ministry may grant prefinancing of up to 40% of the grant, but only against a bank or insurance guarantee lodged beforehand and with the duty to justify it in full through reimbursement claims within 12 months at most, the first of them within 6 months at most.

Pre-financing also needs a form to ask it on. On the cogeneration guide that form has only just appeared: it comes 785 days after the call closed.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The state aid scheme has existed since 2025, approved by Order no. 756 of 23 July 2025 of the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 723 of 4 August 2025. What was missing was the working instrument: without the applicant’s guide, a company knew that 299 million euro existed, but not what documents were needed, how the eligible cost is calculated, who scores the applications and against what grid. Order 824/2026 fills exactly that gap.

Compared with the 2025 scheme, the guide brings in elements that could not be deduced from it. It sets the ceiling of 10 vehicles per undertaking, establishes the scoring grid with its two criteria and their weights, introduces the solvency threshold, meaning that the ratio of total debt to equity has to be positive and below 7.5 in the last financial year, and requires interest cover from EBITDA above 1.0. Companies that fail the solvency threshold are not eliminated, but they have to bring a comfort letter or a bank creditworthiness letter at the contracting stage.

The reserve mechanism is new as well. Applications that do not fit within the budget are not rejected, they go onto a reserve list and move up automatically if a selected project falls at the administrative check. And if the budget of the first session is not used up, the ministry organises a new procedure for the remaining amount.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The price difference between an electric truck and a diesel one can be covered in full, up to 100%, which removes exactly the barrier that keeps fleets on diesel.
  • Micro enterprises enter the scheme on the same terms as large operators, and the main criterion is not size but how little you ask for per vehicle.
  • The criterion on kilometres run in Romania rewards hauliers who actually work the domestic market, with up to 15 points out of 100.
  • Prefinancing of up to 40% solves the cash flow problem of a small company that would otherwise have to pay for the truck first and wait for reimbursement.
  • The reserve list means a good application is not lost if another one, better scored, falls at the document check.

What remains a problem

  • The guide does not say when applications are filed. The company has to watch the ministry’s website to find out the deadline, and the file requires tax certificates, criminal records and shareholder resolutions that cannot be obtained overnight.
  • The ceiling of 10 vehicles is written in two different ways in the same act, once as a total limit and once as a limit per procedure, and the difference between the two readings can amount to 40 vehicles.
  • The scoring grid leaves a gap between 49% and 50% of kilometres run in Romania, an interval in which no score can be awarded.
  • Committing to a percentage of kilometres over five years, on pain of full recovery with interest, is a hard risk to manage for a haulier working international routes, where the customer dictates the route.
  • Information, publicity and financial audit costs are mandatory but not eligible, so they are paid out of pocket on top of the own contribution.
  • The financing contract is a contract of adhesion, with clauses that are not negotiable, and the guide states that the contracting procedure may differ from what it says, depending on what the IT platform allows.

Practical advice

  1. Work out the eligible cost before anything else. Ask the supplier for two offers for the electric vehicle and two for the standard diesel or electric equivalent, with the same technical specifications, all net of VAT. The difference between them is the only amount the State can cover.
  2. Pull the percentage of kilometres run in Romania last year out of your accounts, vehicle by vehicle, before deciding what to commit to. The percentage undertaken has to be at least equal to the one achieved and it holds for five years, otherwise the aid is recovered with interest.
  3. Check the ratio of total debt to equity in your latest balance sheet. If it is above 7.5, prepare a bank comfort letter in good time, because at the contracting stage you have only 15 working days for the whole file.
  4. Do not count on leasing. Purchase under a leasing arrangement is expressly excluded, as are second hand vehicles and projects filed in partnership.
  5. If you carry fossil fuels alongside other goods, separate the activities in your accounts before filing. The scheme applies only if you can show that the excluded part receives no aid.
  6. Open the account dedicated to the project and obtain the tax certificates from ANAF and from the local tax department while you still have time. At contracting, any debt to the budget takes the file out of the scheme.
  7. Watch the mt.ro page daily after 4 October 2026. The launch notice for each procedure is the only place where the filing deadline appears.
  8. If you lose at evaluation, you have 30 days from the communication of the result to challenge it, filed in MySMIS 2021, with detailed grounds of fact and law for each criterion challenged. A challenge without evidence is not taken into account.

Frequently asked questions

When can financing applications be filed?
The guide does not set a date. It provides that the call for each sub-measure is launched within 30 days at most of the publication of the guide in the Official Gazette of Romania, so by 4 October 2026, and that the deadline will appear in the notice published on the website of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, at mt.ro. The guide also provides that the rules have to be published at least six weeks before the filing deadline, which means filing cannot close earlier than 16 October 2026.
Does the State really pay 100% of the truck?
No. It pays up to 100% of the eligible cost, and the eligible cost is only the difference between the price of the zero emission vehicle and the price of an equivalent vehicle, diesel or standard electric, that would have been bought anyway. The reference price of the conventional vehicle stays entirely with the company, as does VAT, which is not eligible at all.
How many vehicles can I buy through the scheme?
The body of the guide says that an undertaking cannot purchase more than 10 vehicles under one or more procedures, so 10 in total. Annex no. 4 to the same guide, however, says „max. 10 vehicles/procedure”. Until the ministry clarifies it, the safe figure is 10 per undertaking.
Which companies are eligible?
Operators of road and rail freight transport and of maritime and inland waterway transport of passengers and freight, already in business, holding a valid licence or transport certificate and registered with the trade register in Romania, plus rail undertakings newly entering the market. The accepted NACE codes are 4920, 4941, 5010, 5020, 5030 and 5040. The size of the company does not matter, but it does matter that it is not in difficulty, in insolvency or in debt to the budget.
Which vehicles are financed?
On the road side, heavy goods vehicles in categories N2 and N3, with a design gross mass of at least 3.5 tonnes, powered exclusively by an electric battery rechargeable from an external source. On the rail side, only electric or battery traction units, that is locomotives. On maritime and inland waterways, electric vessels for passengers and freight. All of them must be new and of a new generation, with CE marking.
What is not financed?
The transport of coal, the transport and distribution of oil and natural gas, road vehicles, rolling stock and vessels dedicated to carrying fossil fuels or blends with alternative fuels, and seagoing and coastal vessels running only on conventional fuels. Also excluded are the fisheries and aquaculture sector, nuclear energy production, purchase under a leasing arrangement, second hand vehicles and projects filed in partnership.
How is the selection made if there are more applications than money?
By bidding. Of the 100 points, 85 are awarded for the amount of aid requested per vehicle, calculated by dividing the aid requested for the project by the number of vehicles. The lowest aid requested takes 85 points, the highest takes zero, the rest are distributed linearly between them. The other 15 points come from the percentage of kilometres run in Romania last year. Where scores are equal, the application filed first wins, according to the registration receipt.
What obligations remain after I receive the money?
Five years of durability from commissioning, during which the vehicle is not sold, the activity does not stop, and the percentage of kilometres run in Romania is kept at least at the level undertaken, with annual reporting by 31 March. Documents are kept for 10 years from the completion of implementation. In the case of replacement, the scrapping of the old vehicle has to be proved within 60 days of taking delivery of the new one.
What happens if I do not reach the percentage of kilometres I committed to?
The ministry recovers the state aid, including interest calculated under the European rules. The guide repeats this penalty five times in the text and makes no provision for partial recovery in proportion to the shortfall.
How long does it take from filing to money in the account?
The guide gives no overall deadline. What is known is that the technical and economic evaluation has no clarification stage, that a challenge is filed within 30 days and settled within 30 days, with the possibility of an extension notified to the challenger, that the contracting file is filed within 15 working days, with a maximum of two rounds of clarifications of 10 working days each, and that a contract received for signature is returned within 5 working days. Prefinancing, if requested, is checked within 20 days at most and paid within 5 working days of the moment the ministry has the money in the treasury.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • The maximum number of vehicles per undertaking is written in two different ways. Section 1.4 of the guide, on page 15 of issue 751 bis, says that applicants „may take part in more than one competitive bidding procedure, but may not purchase more than 10 vehicles under one or more procedures”. Annex no. 4, on page 111 of the same issue, says „max. 10 vehicles/procedure”. Since the guide announces five distinct procedures, N2, N3, rail, vessel purchase and vessel replacement, the two readings lead to 10 vehicles or to 50. Both texts are part of the same act approved by Order 824/2026, so an applicant acting in good faith cannot know how many vehicles they are allowed to buy.
  • The scoring grid leaves an interval with no score. Criterion 2, both in section 1.7 and in Annex no. 2.2, awards 5 points for a percentage of kilometres run in Romania „between 40% and 49%” and 10 points for „between 50% and 70%”. A vehicle that ran 49.5% of its kilometres in Romania falls into neither band. The guide expressly requires the score to be calculated for each vehicle individually and then averaged, so a single vehicle in the dead interval blocks the calculation for the whole project, and the score decides directly whether the project gets financing or not.
  • The penalty for late filing is tied to a deadline that does not exist in the act. The warning box at the end of section 1.2 provides that „The filing period is established in accordance with the provisions of this guide, and the details of how the calls are run will be published on the MTI website. Projects filed outside this deadline will be rejected.” The guide, however, sets no filing period at all, it refers entirely to a future notice. The first sentence asserts something the act does not do, and the rejection is tied to „this deadline”, which in the published text has no content.

Editorial analysis

The most instructive calculation in this guide appears nowhere in it. The ceiling is 18 million euro per undertaking, and the maximum number of vehicles is 10. Divide one by the other and a single vehicle could in theory attract up to 1.8 million euro of eligible cost, that is a price difference of 1.8 million against a diesel truck. If every applicant asked for the maximum allowed, the 299 million euro would buy 166 vehicles in all, and the 130 million for road transport would stretch to 72 trucks. For road transport, the 18 million ceiling is a decorative figure: at a realistic price difference of 150,000 to 250,000 euro per electric truck, a company taking the maximum of 10 vehicles attracts between 1.5 and 2.5 million euro, a tenth of the ceiling. The limit that actually bites is not the amount but the number of vehicles, and it is precisely that number which is written in two different ways in the same act.

On the rail side the arithmetic looks different and far more brutal. The allocation for sub-measure 2 is 90 million euro, exactly five times the ceiling per undertaking. Five operators asking for the maximum use up the entire budget for Romania’s electric locomotives, and on maritime and inland waterways four operators and a bit are enough. In a rail freight market with a small number of large players, a competitive procedure in which four or five participants can take the whole budget is no longer really an auction. The guide anticipates the situation and takes over from the European regulation the duty to correct the procedure if all applicants receive aid, for example by cutting the budget, but it does not say who is to find that this has happened, within what time and against what threshold.

The second observation comes from combining two deadlines that do not sit in the same place in the text. Section 1.2 requires the ministry to launch the calls within 30 days at most of publication, so by 4 October 2026. Section 1.7(a) takes over from Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 the condition that the rules be published at least six weeks before the filing deadline, that is 42 days from 4 September 2026, which gives 16 October 2026. Put together, the two provisions mean that, if the ministry launches the call on the last day allowed, the filing window cannot be shorter than 12 days. Twelve days for a file that requires a certificate of standing from the trade register, two tax clearance certificates, a tax record certificate, a criminal record certificate, balance sheets for two financial years, a shareholder resolution securing the own contribution, an opportunity analysis in searchable PDF, a DNSH analysis and four price offers is not much, and nowhere does the guide impose a minimum length for the window.

The third thing that stands out is the ratio between the average annual budget and the spending horizon. The guide caps the average annual budget at 149.5 million euro, exactly half the total allocation, which describes a scheme designed to run for two years. At the same time, expenditure is eligible until 30 June 2030, and each project has 30 months from filing. The last day on which an application can still be filed with the full 30 months available is 30 December 2027. Anyone catching a call in 2028 or 2029 gets a shortened implementation period, without the guide reducing the requirements accordingly. For an electric vessel or a locomotive, where delivery times are measured in years, that is not a detail of the calendar.

The same transport funding package also includes Order 822/2026, with 150 million euro for the energy efficiency of ports, again through the Transport Programme 2021-2027.

What should be changed

  • Correcting the vehicle ceiling in one direction only. A corrigendum in the Official Gazette of Romania saying whether the 10 vehicles are per undertaking or per procedure would remove the risk of an applicant filing five applications and being rejected on the second, or the other way round, filing only one and losing part of the financing they were entitled to.
  • Closing the 49 to 50% gap in the scoring grid. Rewriting the bands as continuous intervals, for example „from 40% up to but not including 50%” and „from 50% up to 70%”, would make the grid workable for any percentage and spare the committee a discretionary decision in a case that is bound to arise once the average is calculated to decimal places.
  • A guaranteed minimum length for the filing window. Introducing a rule along the lines of „the call stays open for at least 45 calendar days from the publication of the notice” would turn the six weeks in the European condition into a verifiable right of the applicant, instead of leaving the length to the notice on the website.
  • Published reference prices for the counterfactual scenario. The tables in the guide for the price difference are left blank, and every applicant brings their own offers for the diesel comparison vehicle. A set of indicative prices by category, published by the ministry and updated periodically, would cut both the evaluation workload and the temptation to inflate the reference price.
  • Proportionate recovery for the kilometre percentage. The current penalty is recovery of the aid, with no gradation. A company that committed to 70% and achieves 68% loses the same as one that achieves 20%. A proportionate correction scale would make the indicator something a haulier working international routes could commit to, where the customer chooses the route.
  • Publication of the full list of calls in a single timetable. The guide announces five procedures, plus later sessions „to be announced”, all on the mt.ro page. A central timetable, with the dates of each session and the budget assigned, would spare several thousand companies the duty of checking a website every day.

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. 751 of 4 September 2026 16 pages PDF, 99 KB the act starts on page 15

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The other editions cited: nr. 751 bis/2026

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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.