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Which distintivo ambiental does my vehicle get?

Spain's badge is the distintivo ambiental, and which one you get is decided by your emissions class and what kind of vehicle it is — not by its age. Petrol and diesel are read from different rows of the same annex, so both tables are below.

A diesel needs Euro 6 for a C, in every category. A petrol car or van needs only Euro 4 — but the same petrol engine in a bus or a truck over 3.5t needs Euro VI for that C.

Which distintivo ambiental does a diesel get?

Distintivo ambiental by Euro standard and vehicle category, for a diesel
Emissions classCarM1Van up to 3.5tN1Bus or coachM2 / M3Over 3.5tN2 / N3Motorbike or mopedL
Euro 1Ano badgeAno badgeAno badgeAno badgeAno badge
Euro 2Ano badgeAno badgeAno badgeAno badgeB
Euro 3Ano badgeAno badgeAno badgeAno badgeC
Euro 4BBBBC
Euro 5BBBBnot enumerated
Euro 6CCCCnot enumerated

The category is not a detail — it changes the badge. A diesel Euro 5 is a B as a car and a B as a vehicle over 3.5t. The light rows (M1, N1) and the heavy rows (M2, M3, N2, N3) are written separately in the regulation, and the heavy ones are stricter.

Which distintivo ambiental does a petrol vehicle get?

Distintivo ambiental by Euro standard and vehicle category, for a petrol
Emissions classCarM1Van up to 3.5tN1Bus or coachM2 / M3Over 3.5tN2 / N3Motorbike or mopedL
Euro 1Ano badgeAno badgeAno badgeAno badgeAno badge
Euro 2Ano badgeAno badgeAno badgeAno badgeB
Euro 3BBAno badgeAno badgeC
Euro 4CCBBC
Euro 5CCBBnot enumerated
Euro 6CCCCnot enumerated

The category is not a detail — it changes the badge. A petrol Euro 5 is a C as a car and a B as a vehicle over 3.5t. The light rows (M1, N1) and the heavy rows (M2, M3, N2, N3) are written separately in the regulation, and the heavy ones are stricter.

We can tell you what the rules say. Only the DGT can tell you what your plate actually holds. Every criterion in the regulation is written as “clasificados en el Registro de Vehículos como…” — the badge is a property the DGT records against your registration number in its own vehicle register, not something you or we derive from a rule. So the tables above tell you what your vehicle should be classed as. Look the real answer up free against your plate on the DGT site before you rely on it. That is a genuine difference from France, where the Crit'Air vignette follows a published date table anyone can read off, and from Germany, where the group is printed in the vehicle document you already hold.
Motorhomes: we can't pick your row for you, and it matters. The regulation says nothing about how a motorhome is categorised — that lives in EU type-approval law, not here. As an M1 a petrol Euro 4 or 5 motorhome is a C; as an M2 or M3 the identical vehicle is only a B. Which applies is whatever the Registro de Vehículos records against your plate — it's on your ficha técnica. We'd rather point you at it than guess, because a guess here is the difference between driving into Madrid's centre and a fine.

Hybrids, gas and electric

Those tables cover pure petrol and diesel. Three things sit outside them:

Where these tables come from

Transcribed from Anexo II, apartado E of the Reglamento General de Vehículos (RD 2822/1998), “Clasificación de los vehículos por su potencial contaminante”, as added by the Orden PCI/810/2018, de 27 de julio and read from the BOE consolidated text at boe.es. Nothing here is inferred, and the tables are generated by the same classifier the city pages use, gated by 194 boundary tests.

One honest gap: the regulation lists only Euro 3 and Euro 4 for L-category vehicles, because the 2018 order predates Euro 5 for motorcycles. Rather than extrapolate, those cells read not enumerated. The DGT issues a C in practice — but practice isn't what we assert from.

Where to get one

The distintivo is a physical sticker for your windscreen, tied to the plate, sold through Correos and authorised outlets including gestorías and some ITV stations. It costs a few euros. We don't sell them and never will — any site charging a premium is a middleman. Foreign-registered vehicles can be classified under the same criteria, which apartado E.1 states explicitly.

Driving somewhere else?