EV Subsidy Payout: 3-4 Months, Then Two Weeks

The short answer: payment lands four to five and a half months after registration, and the repayment follows the months left

The national CEV subsidy is paid in arrears. You pay the full price of the car first and the subsidy arrives nearly half a year later. The repayment is fixed by when you dispose of the car, and the price you sell it for is irrelevant.

Sources: the Center's notice[Center] and Application Guidelines III[Guidelines III], plus each local government's guidance[Tokyo][Aichi][Nagoya][Kanagawa].

The national review takes three to four months, and the transfer date is on the notice

The Center publishes how long it takes. Arrival to grant decision is roughly three to four months, and anything missing from the papers stretches it further[Center, 6 August 2026]. Question 4 of its FAQ says the same[Center, Q4].

Once the decision is made, a "notice of grant decision and determination of the subsidy amount" arrives. The scheduled transfer date is written on it. From dispatch to transfer is usually two weeks[Guidelines III].

• The filing deadline is one month from the date of first registration (for registrations on or after 1 May 2026)[Center].
• Whether your papers have been accepted shows on the Center's "review status check", updated the day after receipt.
• You are asked not to telephone about the progress of the review.
• Applications are expected to close somewhere between early and late December 2026. Places go in order of arrival, and the scheme ends the day before the budget runs out[Center, 4 September 2026].

If you are buying now, the safe course is to finish both registration and delivery of the application within November. Register by the end of the year and the money still arrives in the spring. On carrying the price of the car in the meantime, see subsidies are paid in arrears (bridge loans).

Tokyo is the only prefecture that pays individuals; elsewhere it is the municipalities

Local top-ups split on whether an individual can use them at all. Prefectural vehicle subsidies mostly target businesses, and a private car is often out of scope.

Where they really differ is in how clearly they state the wait. Aichi writes "grant decision in about 1.5 months, transfer about 2 months after the notice"[Aichi, guide]. Kanagawa publishes no timetable and does not even send a notice unless something changes[Kanagawa]. Designing a scheme that never says how many months you will wait is something we would like to see fixed.

For the amounts region by region, see EV subsidies in all 47 prefectures; for Tokyo's procedure, see the Tokyo EV subsidy guide.

The repayment formula: subsidy amount times months remaining divided by 48 (national)

For a privately owned passenger car, goods vehicle or light vehicle the restricted-disposal period is a flat four years[Guidelines III]. It runs from the date of first registration (or notification), not from the date the money landed. Selling, giving away, lending out or scrapping the car within those four years is a disposal of property.

Applied to a car that drew ¥850,000:

This site's calculation. The formula and the way months are counted follow Guidelines III; these are not worked examples published by the Center.

The national scheme and Tokyo differ in the formula and in how months are counted

If you took both, you apply for approval separately and repay separately. Settling with the national scheme does not settle Tokyo.

Sources: Guidelines III[Guidelines III], Tokyo's "About disposal"[Tokyo], Nagoya City[Nagoya], Kanagawa Prefecture[Kanagawa]. Aichi uses the same pro-rata method as the national scheme[Aichi].

For the different method used up to fiscal 2022, see the four-year repayment rule for EV subsidies.

Whether moving house counts as a "disposal" depends on the scheme

Get this wrong and hundreds of thousands of yen are at stake. The national scheme does not list a change of address among its disposals. If your address or registration number changes, a notification of change is enough[Guidelines III]. No provision rules it out in so many words, so check with the Center if in doubt.

• Tokyo treats a move out of the metropolis as a disposal. A change of the applicant's address to outside Tokyo, and a move of the base of operation outside Tokyo, both appear in its list of disposals[Cool Net Tokyo].
• Aichi Prefecture bans a move out of the prefecture in writing. "Nor is it permitted to move the base of operation outside the prefecture and use the vehicle there"[Aichi].
• Nagoya City limits the changes a mere notification can cover to those "within Nagoya City". No provision makes a move out of the city a disposal[Nagoya].

Tokyo also treats switching the vehicle inspection certificate between private and commercial use in the same way as a disposal. If you are starting a business and will make the switch, check first.

Approval first, disposal second: sell quietly and you repay the lot

The order of the paperwork is fixed. Asking after you have sold is too late, and that is where this scheme bites.

1. File the application for approval of disposal of property. If you cannot find your grant decision number, attach a copy of the vehicle inspection certificate. The form differs by the year in which you received the subsidy[Center, disposal of property].
2. Dispose of the car only after the notice of approval arrives. Approval takes time, so file early.
3. File the report on the disposal of property. The Center works out the repayment and tells you.
4. Repay. The deadline is 20 days after that notice[Guidelines III].

If it emerges that you disposed of the car without approval, you can be asked to repay the whole subsidy. The Center surveys periodically who still holds the cars it paid for. Where there is fraud, an additional charge of 10.95% a year is added, and the Act on Proper Execution of Budget Related to Subsidies also provides for criminal penalties[Guidelines III].

In the ¥850,000, 30-month example, filing the papers costs you ¥318,750 and disposing without approval costs ¥850,000. The gap is ¥531,250: over half a million yen turns on whether you file a form.

For registrations from January 2027 the cap falls, depending on the model

The cap is set model by model. Registrations from 1 April to 31 December 2026 draw up to ¥1.3 million for an EV, ¥850,000 for a PHEV and ¥1.5 million for an FCV[Center, Appendix 1].

What deserves attention is that Appendix 1 carries a second column, "registration on or after 1 January 2027". The largest fall runs from ¥1,008,000 to ¥288,000, down ¥720,000. Plenty of models are unchanged, so this is not an across-the-board cut. Compare the two columns on the row for the model you are buying.

Source: subsidy amount by model (Appendix 1, as of 29 September 2026)[Center, Appendix 1]. The amount can differ by grade within the same model.

Register on 31 December or on 1 January, and for the Leaf or the Ariya the gap is ¥290,000. If delivery might slip past New Year, confirm the registration date with the dealer.

The other hurdle is the closing date. The secretariat has said applications are expected to close "somewhere between early and late December 2026"[Center, 4 September 2026]. If that holds, a car registered in January cannot be put forward for this subsidy at all. The January column only comes into play if the budget lasts into the new year. Nothing has yet been announced about how the next budget will treat these cars.

A word on how the subsidy is taxed. The Center states in its guidelines that Article 42 of the Income Tax Act or Article 42 of the Corporation Tax Act can be applied[Guidelines I-3]. A car used in a business can defer the tax under that article. For a private car it is occasional income, where half of what is left after the ¥500,000 special deduction is taxable[NTA No.1490].

Two things to do today. If you have already applied, look at the scheduled transfer date on your notice of grant decision. If you are thinking of selling or moving, count to the 48th month, and if you are short of it, file the approval application before you talk to the dealer.

Frequently asked questions

Summary

• For the national CEV subsidy, it generally takes 3 to 4 months from application receipt to the grant decision, and usually 2 weeks more until payment. The guideline is about 4 to 5.5 months from vehicle registration.
• The expected payment date is stated in the grant decision notice. Applications are expected to close sometime between early and late December of Reiwa 8 (2026).
• The disposal restriction period is 4 years. If you sell a car with an ¥850,000 subsidy after 2 years 6 months, you must repay ¥318,750.
• Selling without approval means repaying the full ¥850,000, a difference of ¥531,250. The approval application must come before the disposal.
• For registrations from January of Reiwa 9 (2027) onward, the subsidy amount decreases depending on the model. For the Leaf and Ariya, the difference is ¥290,000.

Reference links (sources)

• Next Generation Vehicle Promotion Center, CEV subsidy (vehicles), FY2025 supplementary budget - application status
• Same, time taken to the grant decision (6 August 2026) - a review of 3 to 4 months
• Same, Application Guidelines III - two weeks to transfer, the four-year restriction, the repayment formula
• Same, expected close of applications (4 September 2026) - early to late December
• Same, caps by model (Appendix 1) - the column for registrations from January 2027
• Same, Application Guidelines I-3 - applying Article 42
• Cool Net Tokyo, promotion of electric vehicles - the repayment formula, moving out of Tokyo
• Aichi Prefecture, subsidy for introducing advanced environment-friendly vehicles - the ban on moving out of the prefecture
• Nagoya City, purchase subsidy for zero-emission vehicles - individuals only, 1,460 days
• Kanagawa Prefecture, subsidy for introducing commercial EVs - private cars not eligible
• NTA No.1490, occasional income - the ¥500,000 special deduction

Note: the repayment figures are this site's arithmetic, applying each scheme's formula to the amounts. For a decision on your own case, ask the body running the scheme and your tax office.