What electric cars pay in motor vehicle tax in Valais, how the tax is calculated and what is changing.
Valais gives electric cars neither an exemption nor a discount but a separate power-based tariff: CHF 90 up to 10 kW plus CHF 15 for each started 30 kW. Combustion cars and hybrids are taxed on engine capacity. According to the cantonal government, electric cars pay about 23 % less on average than comparable combustion cars, though very powerful models can pay more.
Engine capacity for combustion cars and hybrids (e.g. CHF 145 up to 1,000 cc, then CHF 11.50 per additional 100 cc). For electric vehicles, power in kW (cantonal motor vehicle tax act, RS 641.5, Art. 5).
Under Art. 5(1)(f)(3) of the Valais motor vehicle tax act, electric cars pay CHF 90 up to 10 kW plus CHF 15 for every full or started 30 kW above that. Until the end of 2024 the supplement was CHF 23 per 30 kW with a cap of CHF 160. On 14 November 2024 the Grand Council removed the cap and lowered the supplement to CHF 15, effective 1 January 2025. According to the Council of State's message, electric cars thus pay about 23 % less on average than comparable combustion cars; a few very powerful models can pay more. The act allows the Council of State to exempt particularly environmentally friendly vehicles for a set period (Art. 3(4)), but no such exemption is currently known to be in force for electric cars.
Hybrid vehicles (including plug-in hybrids) are taxed like combustion cars on engine capacity (Art. 5(1)(f)(4)). There is no reduction.
According to the Council of State's message (November 2024), the change was made by decree, valid for no more than five years. Within that period a full revision of the act must follow, replacing engine capacity as the tax basis. No concrete draft or date is known.
That the act adopted on 14 November 2024 is a time-limited decree (five years at most) rests on the Council of State's message, not on the adopted text; the end date is therefore not confirmed. No exemption ordinance under Art. 3(4) currently in force is known, though none is expressly ruled out.
The Auto-Check works out how much you save overall with an electric car, using your own assumptions.
As of: January 2025. All information without guarantee. The tax bill and the cantonal road traffic office are authoritative.
