Over 65 and Still Driving?

What you need to know about Spain’s driving licence changes. Spain’s general director of traffic Pere Navarro has announced changes in 2023 for older drivers above the age of 65. Find out how they will affect you.

In Spain, there is no legal upper age limit for driving. However, after the age of 65, the frequency with which you have to renew your licence increases.

According to Spain’s General Deputy Director of Training and Road Education of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), María José Aparicio: “30 percent of those killed in traffic accidents in the European Union are over 65 years of age (in Spain it is 28 percent). A fact that is repeated in all countries and reaches 50 percent when we talk about deceased pedestrians or cyclists”.

Recent data from Spain’s traffic authority, the DGT, shows that more than four million people over the age of 65 have a driving licence in Spain, which represents more than 15 percent of all drivers.

Now, the DGT has agreed to change the rules, proposing to make renewals more frequent. They are not in force yet but the plan is for the changes to come into effect over the course of 2023.

Currently, everyone under the age of 65 in Spain must renew their licence every 10 years, while for those over 65, it’s every five years.

All professional drivers must also renew their licences every five years unless they’re over 65 in which case it’s every three years.

“For a 90-year-old person to have their driving license not renewed until 95, it seems strange,” explained Navarro.

It has not yet been confirmed exactly how often older people will have to renew their licences, but it will be more often than every five years.

Aparicio confirmed: “We know that we will have to reduce the periods of validity”.

The DGT are also considering subdividing age categories further so that the older you get the more frequently you will have to renew your licence.

Every time you renew your driving licence in Spain, you must undergo a ‘psicotécnico‘ a medical exam that tests both your physical and mental abilities to assess whether you can safely carry out certain tasks, such as driving a car.

It includes a health questionnaire, a psychomotor test and an eye exam to ensure that you’re still safe to drive on the roads, protecting both your safety as well as that of other drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

You can to your medical test to renew your licence at any Driver Recognition Centre or Centros de Reconocimiento de Conductores around the country. These are listed on the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT) website and can be found here.

While you are waiting for your new card to be processed, you will be issued with a provisional permit.

The price of the medical examination ranges between €35 and €80, depending on the centre, and the traffic renewal fee for people over 65 years of age is €24.58, although if you are over 70 years of age you are exempt from paying the fee.

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