Driving in Spain for Foreigners: Licence, ITV and Fines Who can drive in Spain on a foreign licence, when residents must exchange it, how the ITV works, insurance, fines with the 50% discount, points and the 2026 rule changes on the Costa del Sol. Driving in Spain for Foreigners: Licence, ITV and Fines If you have just moved to the Costa del Sol, or you are planning to, the car question arrives early: can you keep driving on your current licence, what is this ITV everybody mentions, and what happens if you get a fine. The Spanish system is logical once you separate the three situations it recognises: tourist, resident with an EU licence, and resident with a licence from outside the EU. This guide goes through all three, plus the paperwork of keeping a car here and the rules that changed in 2026. Who can drive on which licence As a visitor, any valid driving licence works. If your licence follows the EU format, you can drive on it as long as it is valid. If it does not, because it is from the United States, Australia or another non-EU country, carry an International Driving Permit alongside the original. Rental companies on the coast accept both without discussion. Things change the day you become a resident. Here the law splits in two. If your licence was issued by an EU country, Spain asks you to exchange it for a Spanish licence within two years of registering your residency. This is a paper exchange, no test involved, and both expat advisory services and the traffic authority treat the two-year window as the standard deadline. After that deadline, driving in Spain on your old licence becomes a problem at best and a fine at worst, because in Spanish eyes the document is no longer valid for a resident. If your licence is from the United Kingdom or another non-EU country, the window is shorter. Non-EU licences are valid for the first six months after you obtain residency, and after that you must either exchange or, for countries without an agreement with Spain, take the Spanish theory and practical tests. UK licence holders are in the better position: the agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom lets you exchange without any test, at any point within those six months. How the exchange works in practice The exchange is done through the DGT, the Spanish traffic authority. The current procedure runs on a digital pre-application system: you start the file online or through a gestoria, send your original licence to the DGT, pay the administration fee, and receive a Spanish licence by post. The fee is set by the DGT itself: 28.87 euros for an exchange without tests, and 94.05 euros if a test is required for your country. Those are the official rates, published on the DGT fee schedule and repeated by every licence-exchange service on the coast. For the appointment you will need proof of residence, your current licence, and the completed application. Book through the DGT website, where you can find the form under the canje section, or let a gestoria do the whole thing for a handling fee. UK holders should start the process comfortably before the six-month mark, because the file takes weeks, not days, and your original licence sits at the DGT while it runs. Once you hold a Spanish licence, renewal is light: ten years of validity for drivers under 65, and the renewal is a formality plus a simple psycho-physical certificate from an authorised centre. Bringing a car, and keeping it street-legal The second half of the story is the vehicle. A foreign-registered car can circulate in Spain freely as long as the owner is not a resident. Residents are expected to put their car on Spanish plates: the route runs through customs clearance, the registration process with the DGT, Spanish number plates, and, before all of that, an ITV. The ITV, the Inspeccion Tecnica de Vehiculos, is Spain's roadworthiness test, and it follows the age of the car rather than the owner's passport. The standard rhythm for a normal car is: first inspection four years after its first registration, then every two years, and once the car passes ten years of age, every year. Vehicles between 30 and 40 years old move to a two-year historic rhythm, and the oldest classics get their own calendar. Every imported vehicle also needs an ITV before it can be registered in Spain at all, whatever its age. On the Costa del Sol you will pass ITV stations near every town, from Malaga to Estepona, and the inspection covers lights, brakes, emissions, tyres and the general condition of the car. Pass the test and you get a sticker for the windscreen with the next due date. The ITV calendar is the same for foreign and Spanish drivers, so if you are driving a Spanish-plated car as a resident, the dates are yours to respect. Insurance is not optional. Spain requires at least third-party liability cover for every vehicle, and the police can ask for proof of payment, so keep the receipt of your last premium in the car or in your phone. If you bring a UK or non-EU-plated car, check with your insurer that the policy is valid in Spain for the whole stay, because minimum cover that satisfies your home country does not always match what Spain demands. Fines, points and the 2026 changes Now the part everybody asks about: fines. The general rule is that a fine paid within 20 days gets a 50 per cent discount, and this applies whether you hold a Spanish licence or not. The discount is automatic, you simply pay half when you pay early, and most people consider it the default move for a standard speeding or parking fine. Holders of a Spanish licence also live under the points system. Each licence starts with a balance of points, and serious offences deduct them: not wearing a seatbelt, or a child not in the correct seat, now costs four points under the updated scale, and carrying a radar detector costs three points plus a 500-euro fine. Foreign licence holders do not have points to lose, but that does not make fines cheaper: within the EU, cross-border enforcement means a Spanish fine can follow you to your home country, and unpaid fines have a habit of resurfacing at renewal time. On speed, the numbers are simple. Motorways and autovias are 120 km/h for cars, conventional roads are typically 90 km/h, town streets are 50 km/h, and residential streets 30 km/h or less. Speeding fines start at 100 euros for exceeding the limit by up to 30 km/h, which is the most common band on the coast. Two 2026 changes are worth knowing beyond that. Since January 2026, overtaking rules have tightened: when you pass another vehicle you must reduce your speed by at least 20 km/h below the road's limit and keep a minimum lateral distance of 1.5 metres. The measure is aimed at protecting cyclists and slow vehicles on the regional roads of the interior, but it applies everywhere in Spain. In parallel, the traffic authority has introduced fines of 200 euros and four points for drivers who breach the safe stopping distance, the minimum 70-metre gap meant to keep you out of the car in front's boot. Alcohol limits complete the picture: the general limit is 0.5 grams per litre of blood, which reads as 0.25 milligrams per litre on a breath test, and drivers in their first two years face a stricter limit of 0.15 milligrams. The advice that keeps everybody safe is simpler: if you drive, don't drink. A closing checklist Exchange your EU licence within two years of residency, your UK or non-EU licence within six months. Start the DGT file early, budget 28.87 euros for the exchange, and expect the original licence to travel to Madrid for a few weeks. If you are a resident, plan the Spanish plating of your car instead of stretching the foreign plates. Respect the ITV rhythm of your vehicle, four years, then two, then one, and never drive without proof of insurance. Pay any fine within 20 days if you intend to pay it at all, keep 1.5 metres when you pass, and 120 km/h is 120 km/h, not a suggestion with margin. Do all of this and the Spanish driving system, which looks bureaucratic from the outside, becomes what it actually is: predictable, cheap to comply with, and generous with clear numbers.