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MAP: The Spanish motorway routes that will become toll-free in 2020

Motorway sections in the Valencia region, Andalusia and the Basque Country are set to become toll-free in 2020.

Published: 1 January 2020 16:55 CET

MAP: The Spanish motorway routes that will become toll-free in 2020

Photo: AFP

From January 1st 2020, several private companies handling motorway (highway) toll payments in Spain will see some of their concessions expire, meaning that a handful of motorway sections will no longer require drivers to pay tolls.

One of these is the AP-7 between the cities of Tarragona, Valencia and Alicante.

According to the Michelin guide, this motorway in eastern Spain linking Catalonia with the Valencia region currently costs €62.37 in tolls for the full 420km-route.

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Another toll route that will become free in 2020 is the AP-4 between Seville and Cádiz.

The 120km route which runs from the Andalusian capital to Cádiz on the coast will cease to cost €17.70 for the 25,200 drivers who take the AP-4 every day.

The third and final motorway (autopista in Spanish) section that will become toll-free in 2020 is the considerably shorter AP-1 between the town of Armiñón on the outskirts of the Basque country’s capital Vitoria and the northern city of Burgos.

The one-hour 95km route will cease to cost €8.62 in tolls from January 1st.

Another important motorway route that will become toll-free is the AP-2 between Barcelona and Zaragoza, which currently costs €58.63 in peaje (toll in Spanish) for the three-hour journey.

Unfortunately, drivers will have to wait a year before benefitting from this, as the government concession granted to the private company handling tolls for this route expires at the end of 2020.

Overall, average toll prices for Spanish motorways will increase by 0.84 percent in 2020, compared to 1.91 percent in 2018 and 1.67percent in 2019.

One of the steepest toll hikes will be that of the AP-9, the motorway that links northern and southern Galicia, which will go up to €22.10 in tolls for the full route.

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How to change the registered address for your car if you move in Spain

When you buy a car in Spain the driving authority, the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), asks you to register your car so that you (and they) can have a reference of where it is, who owns it and, crucially, where you’ll pay tax on it.

This information is necessary because paying vehicle tax in Spain (known as Impuesto sobre Vehículos de Tracción Mecánica or IVTM) depends on where in the country you live, and differs slightly depending on the municipality where you are registered.

You pay the tax in the municipality in which the vehicle is registered, and though the exact amount depends on your area and the type of car you have, generally speaking the annual tax is between €112 and €300 for the year.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What you need to know about road tax in Spain

IVTM is a tax you pay at the municipal level, that is, to your local town hall. According to the DGT, “the Traffic Tax of a vehicle is a mandatory tax that is applied on all motor vehicles, allowing them to circulate on public roads throughout the country”.

But what happens if you move?

Well, it depends. If you’re moving but staying within the same municipality, not much, but if you’re moving across the country to a new part of Spain, you’ll need to change your car’s registered address with the DGT.

How can you request a change of tax address for your car in Spain?

Any change of tax address must be requested by the owner of the vehicle or a duly authorised person on their behalf. There are four ways to request it:

Online – this is done through the DGT’s website, which you can find here. If it’s a general application, you shouldn’t need to attach any documentation. You can simply change the address of all your vehicles or select only those you wish to modify, choosing between the registration address or the tax address of the owner.

For vehicles moving from the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla to the Spanish mainland peninsula or the Balearic Islands, or agricultural vehicles or those with any type of legal limitations or restrictions, you must make the application through the special cases option (supuestos especiales on the DGT website).

In this case, you essentially need to get documentation proving that the car has been cleared through customs. If it is an agricultural vehicle, you will need to provide the document showing that you have reported the change in Spain’s Official Register of Agricultural Machinery (ROMA).

By phone –- call 060, which is the number in Spain to get through to the Servicio de Información de la Administración General del Estado, essentially the go-to contact number for all things public services and administration. You can contact the DGT through this number, where they will check that the address you indicate coincides with the one on the INE register and, if so, make the requested change for you.

READ ALSO: The tricks drivers use to pay less in car taxes in Spain

DGT App — If you have the miDGT app, you can also change your address through the platform.

In person — you can also change your vehicle’s tax address at your town hall (ayuntamiento) where you are currently registered (pre-move) or at any DGT traffic office, though you will need to make an appointment online or by phone beforehand. You can do that here.

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