The ITV is a regular road worthiness test that vehicles have to undergo in Spain. The frequency of the test depends on the vehicle type and its age. For more information on when your vehicle needs to be tested visit our page about the ITV in Spain.
The cost of the test is not uniform throughout Spain. Most autonomous communities set their own tariff. In some cases the ITV tests are carried out by the public authority, whereas in others the autonomous community has given the testing over to private companies. In the region of Murcia and Extremadura, a combination of public and private ITV stations exist.
For example, the private sector operate ITV tests in Andalucia (Veiasa), Asturias (Itvasa) or the Valencian Community (Ivace).
In Madrid, the ITV tests are even more liberalised. The public authority does not dictate the cost of the ITV test at all and leaves it to the private companies to decide an appropriate fee to charge.
How much is an ITV in Spain ?
Facua, the consumer organisation, recently researched this very question. This is what they found:
FACUA has detected differences of up to 167% in the fees of the mandatory Technical Inspection of Vehicles (ITV) for passenger cars with petrol engines and of 95.5% in diesel vehicles, depending on the autonomous community in which it is carried out. [ See table with rates].
The average price of the ITV in the seventeen autonomous communities is currently 34.52 euros for petrol cars and 41.23 euros for those equipped with a diesel engine.
The association’s analysis includes the ITV rates for passenger cars, both diesel and petrol with catalytic converters (the non-catalytic converter ones have less and less presence in the Spanish car fleet), as well as motorcycles. The prices collected include 21% VAT (or 7% of the Canarian IGIC, 9% of the IPSI of Ceuta and 4% of Melilla), but not the tax paid to Trafico, established at 4.1 euros for all inspections.
The most expensive and cheapest for cars fuelled by petrol.
Euskadi is the autonomous community with the highest ITV rate for petrol cars, 45.38 euros. It is followed by Cantabria, with 42 euros, and the Community of Madrid, where the average of the stations surveyed, which set rates without regional regulation, is 41.72 euros.
The cheapest rates for petrol passenger car inspections was Mallorca (in the Balearic Islands the management depends on each island council), 17 euros, Murcia (22.3 euros in the only station operated directly by the regional government, in the town of Alcantarilla) and Andalusia (26.19 euros for vehicles of less than 1,600 cubic centimeters and 35.4 euros for the rest).
The most expensive and the cheapest for cars fuelled by diesel
Regarding the ITV rates for diesel cars, the Community of Madrid is the most expensive, 56.04 euros on average. It is followed by the 48.26 euros that it costs to take the inspection in the private run ITV stations of Murcia (compared to 30.90 euros in the only public station in the region). In third place is Galicia, with 47.72 euros.
As for the lowest rates for the ITV of diesel cars, they are those of the public stations of Extremadura (28.67 euros), Navarra (29.4 euros) and those of Andalusia for cars of less than 1,600 cc. (30.79 euros).
How much is a motorcycle ITV in Spain ?
The average cost of the ITV test for a motorcycle in the seventeen autonomous communities is 19.90 euros. In this category, the difference between the most expensive and the cheapest reaches 254%. Thus, the most expensive are in the Community of Madrid, where the average price of the stations compared by FACUA -they have liberalised rates- is no less than 36.17 euros. At the other extreme, Mallorca, where passing the ITV costs 10.21 euros.
Liberalised service in Madrid
The Community of Madrid, the most expensive in absolute terms in relation to the price of the ITV for diesel cars, has the service of Technical Inspection of Vehicles liberalised and therefore the rates are not regulated by the autonomous administration.
In this sense, each company charges the prices it deems appropriate. On the rates published in each ITV station, most companies apply different discounts to try to attract more customers, depending on the hours at which it is requested. For example, by prior appointment for the inspection or if it is contracted through telematic means. These discounts have not been taken into account by FACUA when carrying out this study, due to the array of offers.
According to the rates published by each ITV dealer in the Community of Madrid, the average price of the inspection is 41.72 euros for gasoline cars (3.3% more than in 2019), a figure that is 21% above the Spanish average, and 56.04 euros for cars with diesel engines, which represents 34.3% more than the national average.
Different Tariff systems
Andalusia offers a more complex tariff system. It makes a distinction between vehicles not only based on whether they are powered by petrol or diesel engines, but also on their engine size. It sets a rate of 26.19 euros for petrol passenger cars with engines of less than 1,600 cubic centimeters and 35.40 euros for those with a larger cylinder capacity. In the case of diesel cars, something similar happens. The Junta de Andalucía sets a rate of 30.79 euros for cars of less than 1,600 cubic centimetres and 40.00 euros for the rest.
At the opposite extreme is Extremadura, where there is a single rate for all vehicles, regardless of their cylinder capacity and whether they are petrol or diesel. In the ITV stations of the Extremadura community, the rate is 28.67 euros (if it is a station operated directly by the regional administration) or 34.69 euros (in the case of stations under the concession regime).
In general, there is enormous diverseness with respect to the way in which each autonomous community sets its own ITV rates. And this, despite the fact that the inspections are regulated by state regulations. In all of them the procedure for the ITV is exactly the same as that set out in Royal Decree 920/2017 of October 23, which regulates the Inspection Technical of Vehicles throughout Spain.
In this sense, the prices vary from one community to another. Additionally, the rates are also broken down into different concepts in each autonomous community. There are those that include all the revisions, and those that break down the cost of each section (gas emission, noise control, etc.), even if it is included in the mandatory inspection.
Source: Facua