CAE credits for drivers who share their car: what they are, how much they pay and how to apply
Spain's Energy Saving Certificates pay those who cut consumption. Under measure TRA040, every shared ride generates kWh that turn into money for the driver. A guide with figures, requirements and the programme's real status.
By the Kidstoride team··8 min read
If you take children to school or colleagues to work in your car, every ride saves the energy of the cars that stay at home. Since 2023, Spain has a system to put a price on that saving and pay it to whoever produces it: the Energy Saving Certificates (CAE). This guide explains how it works, which figures are realistic and what you need to do to collect it with Kidstoride.
What CAE credits are
Energy Saving Certificates are a Spanish government mechanism, regulated by Royal Decree 36/2023 and Order TED/845/2023. Energy retailers must fund energy savings every year; instead of doing it only through contributions to a fund, they can buy certificates that prove real savings achieved by third parties. Each certificate equals kilowatt-hours saved and is bought at market price.
Among the standardised measures that qualify is TRA040, collaborative mobility: shared rides in a private car. In other words, carpooling generates certificates, and those certificates have an economic value that can end up in the driver's pocket.
How a ride's saving is calculated
The TRA040 sheet (version 1.1) sets the formula. For each shared ride, the energy saved in kWh is:
0.705 × km × 0.75 × passengers
Where 0.705 kWh/km is a car's reference consumption, 0.75 a correction factor and "passengers" the number of people riding with you (those who, without the shared ride, would have gone in another car).
The price those kWh sell for is set by the certificate market; in recent months it has ranged between €90 and €140 per MWh, that is, between €0.09 and €0.14 per kWh.
Realistic figures
| Ride | kWh generated | Approximate value |
|---|---|---|
| 5 km with 2 children | 5.3 kWh | €0.48 – 0.74 |
| 10 km with 3 passengers | 15.9 kWh | €1.43 – 2.22 |
| 25 km with 4 passengers | 52.9 kWh | €4.76 – 7.40 |
Swipe sideways to see the whole table.
A single ride is worth little. What counts is repetition. A mother who drives two children 5 km to school, there and back, five days a week during the school year (about 36 weeks), accumulates around 1,900 kWh: between €170 and €270 a year. A worker who commutes to an industrial park with three colleagues, 20 km each way, twice a day, exceeds 9,000 kWh a year: between €800 and €1,300.
These figures depend on the market price when each batch is settled and are not a promise; they are the scale of the programme.
Who can apply
- Be an active driver on Kidstoride with at least one completed ride.
- Hold a valid Spanish NIF, NIE or CIF and be tax resident in Spain.
- Have an IBAN to receive the payment.
- Accept the specific terms of the CAE programme.
Only drivers generate certificates. Passengers are not paid: the incentive is for whoever provides the car. And it is compatible with charging passengers for the ride: they are two separate flows, one is the sharing of transport costs and the other the CAE incentive, funded by energy companies.
How to apply in the app
- Go to your profile and open "CAE credits".
- Enter your NIF or NIE, your full name and your IBAN.
- Accept the terms and submit the application.
- The Kidstoride team reviews it within 24 to 48 working hours and notifies you when it is approved.
From then on there is nothing else to do: every completed ride with passengers calculates and accumulates your kWh automatically, and you can see the balance in the app. The data used are the distance, the number of passengers and the dates of each ride.
The programme's real status, no embellishment
Kidstoride applies measure TRA040 and acts as a facilitating platform. Turning kWh into money requires a CAE operator certified by the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) to validate the savings and sell them to retailers. That agreement is being processed. Until it is signed, the credits you accumulate are recorded and validated on the platform, but their payment is not guaranteed on a specific date. We will notify you as soon as the agreement is active and settlements begin.
We say it this plainly because it is what we would ask for if we were on the other side. What is certain: every ride you share today is counted from today.
Tax and data
CAE programme amounts are income recognised by the Spanish administration and are declared in the personal income tax return for the year they are received. Kidstoride will give you an annual certificate with the total received; for your specific case, consult an adviser or the tax agency.
Your ride data are processed to calculate credits with your express consent, which you can withdraw from your profile at any time (we would stop calculating new credits). GPS positions are not stored in the database.
In short
Sharing your car already saves you fuel and time. CAE credits add a recognised income for every kilometre with passengers, which on daily trips reaches hundreds of euros a year. It takes two minutes to activate and changes nothing about how you use the app.
More detail and the full table at kidstoride.com/cae. If you do not drive on the app yet, create your account and publish your first ride.