Motorbike tax in Germany: what riders pay
German motorbike tax depends on engine size alone, and even big touring bikes cost less than a small car.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Motorbike tax by engine size
Vehicle tax per year
€51
| Started 25 cm³ units | 28 |
| Rate per unit | €1.84 |
Motorbikes with piston engines pay €1.84 of German vehicle tax (Kfz-Steuer) for every started 25 cm³ of engine capacity, under Section 9(1) No. 1 of the Motor Vehicle Tax Act. Nothing else counts: no CO2 figure, no Euro emission class, no age adjustment. A 689 cm³ middleweight is 28 blocks and pays €51 a year, a 1,000 cm³ sports bike pays €73 and a 1,868 cm³ cruiser €138. The amount is rounded down to the euro and collected once a year by German customs through SEPA direct debit. Many riders register their bike on a seasonal plate, which limits the tax to the months shown: April to October costs about €30 for the 689 cm³ bike. Classic bikes on a historic H plate pay a flat €46.02 a year. Electric motorbikes are exempt for up to ten years and then pay a small weight-based tax at half rate. If you bring a bike when you move to Germany, the tax is one of the smaller costs.
A flat rate per 25 cm³
Section 9(1) No. 1 KraftStG fits in one line: motorbikes driven by piston engines pay €1.84 for each 25 cm³ of engine capacity or part of it. There are no bands, no CO2 charge and no distinction between petrol and diesel or between old and new. The engine size is printed in field P.1 of your Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil I, the registration certificate. Riders used to tax tiers by power, weight or emissions in their home country will find the German system refreshingly simple.
Partial blocks count in full. 689 cm³ is 27 complete blocks plus one started, so 28 in total, which gives €51.52. Section 11(5) rounds that down to €51.
What common engine sizes pay
| Engine | Blocks of 25 cm³ | Tax per year |
|---|---|---|
| 250 cm³ | 10 | €18 |
| 390 cm³ | 16 | €29 |
| 500 cm³ | 20 | €36 |
| 689 cm³ | 28 | €51 |
| 890 cm³ | 36 | €66 |
| 1,254 cm³ | 51 | €93 |
| 1,868 cm³ | 75 | €138 |
Even the biggest cruiser stays below €140 a year. A small 2024 petrol car with 999 cm³ and 110 g of CO2 pays €50, about what a bike with nearly twice the engine size pays. For most riders, insurance, tyres and servicing cost far more than the tax.
Bringing your bike to Germany
Once you live in Germany and register the bike here, it gets a German plate and the tax starts from that day. At the registration office you sign a SEPA direct debit mandate, and about two weeks later customs, through the Hauptzollamt for your area, sends the tax notice. Because the rate depends only on engine size, the date of first registration does not matter for motorbikes, unlike for cars. An imported 2008 bike and a brand-new one with the same engine pay the same.
Before registration a bike from outside the EU usually needs a technical inspection, and later it joins the two-yearly roadworthiness test (HU); prices are on the TÜV cost page. Licence questions, such as whether your motorbike category carries over and what German test fees are, are covered under driving licence costs.
Seasonal plates
A Saisonkennzeichen is popular with riders: the plate shows a range such as 04 to 10, and the bike is registered only for those months each year, without re-registering. Section 5(1) No. 5 KraftStG limits the tax liability to that window, and Section 11(4) charges one 365th of the annual tax per day, ignoring 29 February.
For the 689 cm³ bike and the 214 days from April to October, the tax comes to about €30; for the 1,868 cm³ cruiser about €80. The saving is small in euros. Insurance follows the same season, which is where the real difference lies. Out of season the bike may not be ridden or parked on public roads. Customs cannot align a seasonal plate with the due date of your other vehicles.
Motorbike tax by engine size
Vehicle tax per year
€51
| Started 25 cm³ units | 28 |
| Rate per unit | €1.84 |
Classic bikes on an H plate
A historic plate (H-Kennzeichen, for vehicles recognised as classics) switches the bike to a flat tax. Section 1(1) No. 4 KraftStG makes the allocation of such a plate taxable in itself, and Section 9(4) sets €46.02 a year when the plate is for motorbikes only. Engine size no longer matters.
For small classics this is a little more expensive than the normal rate: a 390 cm³ single pays €29 on the standard scale. Above 625 cm³ the flat rate is cheaper. Most owners choose the H plate for what it says about the bike rather than for the tax, and the recognition itself is handled under vehicle registration law, with an expert inspection.
Electric bikes, trikes and quads
The 25 cm³ rate covers piston engines only. Electric motorbikes therefore fall under the electric vehicle exemption of Section 3d: tax-free for ten years from a first registration up to the end of 2030, and never beyond 31 December 2035. After that they pay the weight-based tax for vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes, halved. A 2018 electric motorbike with 450 kg permitted total weight would then pay €16 a year. The electric car tax page explains how the exemption runs, and the rules are identical.
Three-wheelers and light quads with piston engines have their own per-100 cm³ rates under Section 9(1) No. 2b, depending on fuel and emission limits. Which rule applies depends on the vehicle class on the registration certificate, so check the result with the Finance Ministry calculator.
Borderline engines
Because every started block counts in full, two bikes with almost the same engine can land one step apart. A 999 cm³ engine pays €73, a 1,001 cm³ one €75. The value that counts is the one the registration office entered in field P.1, not the brochure figure. If you fit a big-bore kit, the new capacity has to be recorded, and the tax changes from that day (Section 5(3) KraftStG).
Deregistering for winter instead
Some riders take the bike off the road each autumn and register it again in spring. On tax alone the difference from a seasonal plate is small, but each registration starts a liability of at least one month (Section 5(1) No. 1), triggers a fresh tax notice and costs registration fees. A seasonal plate renews itself every year for the same months. If you want to extend the season, you have the period on the plate changed, and customs reassesses the tax (Section 12(2) No. 5).
Visiting on a foreign-registered bike
Touring Germany on a bike registered abroad costs no German vehicle tax as long as the stay is temporary. Section 3 No. 13 KraftStG exempts foreign private vehicles for up to a year, unless they acquire a regular base in Germany. The exemption is meant for visitors. Once you move here and keep the bike here, it needs German registration, and the normal rate applies from that day.
A car and a bike
If you also keep a car registered all year, you receive two notices with two due dates. On request, Section 11(4) No. 1 allows one common due date for two or more vehicles, with a one-off charge by the day to line them up. A bike on a seasonal plate cannot be included.
Small two-wheelers and plates
Section 3 No. 1 KraftStG exempts vehicles that do not need registration under the vehicle registration ordinance. Which two-wheelers those are is decided by that ordinance, not by the tax law. In practice, a small scooter that carries only an insurance plate (Versicherungskennzeichen) instead of an official registration plate receives no tax notice. Anything with an official plate from the registration office is taxable unless another exemption applies.
Paying and deregistering
Payment works as for cars: the customs administration debits the annual amount in advance, or the seasonal amount at the start of each season. When you deregister or sell, you get the unused part back, counted by the day. More on notices and refunds is on the vehicle tax overview, and the vehicle tax calculator gives the figure for any engine size.