Driving License Reform 2027 What really changes for your license.

No, that claim is false. The fixed number of special drives is being dropped entirely – but it is not reduced to three across the board. You can now read this in the ordinance text itself (§ 4, Bundesrat document 365/26): cross-country, motorway and night drives remain mandatory topics, and your instructor must establish that you handle them safely. How many hours you need therefore depends on your progress – in dense Munich city traffic, on the Mittlerer Ring and the A8/A9 motorways this varies from learner to learner.

That is the goal of the reform, but not a guarantee. Less bureaucracy can lower fixed costs. Because the practical training becomes performance-based, your final price will depend even more on your individual learning effort. Munich is among the most expensive cities for a license anyway – you should not count on a guaranteed saving.

No, the legal in-person attendance requirement is set to be dropped. You will then be able to learn everything for the theory exam fully digitally via app. The exam requirements and the required knowledge, however, stay strictly the same.

The announced plan is to cut the official question pool from 1,169 questions by about a third – to roughly 840, removing mainly outdated and non-EU-compliant questions. To be fair: the ordinance now on the table (document 365/26) does not yet lay down this number – for now it primarily revises how questions are weighted. As soon as the pool is officially reduced, you will read it here.

The ordinance (document 365/26) now regulates this concretely – as a time-limited trial called “supervised driving practice” with clear conditions: you need a passed theory exam, at least 6 regular driving lessons and a joint briefing together with your accompanying person – both at a driving school. The accompanying person (e.g. a parent) must, among other things, have held a license for at least 7 years, have no more than 1 point in Flensburg and accompany you free of charge; the car carries an “L” plate marked “Übungsfahrt” (practice drive), and the permit is issued for a maximum of 12 months. So it does not replace driving school training – it supplements it. Important: this point is particularly contested in the legislative process – and by now the dispute is between the Bundesrat and the Federal Government. On 10 July 2026 the Bundesrat came out in favour of letting the trial apply uniformly nationwide (individual states would have had to opt out). On 20 July 2026 the Federal Government expressly rejected this: it maintains that each federal state must actively introduce the trial through its own ordinance (section 2e(3) of the draft). This will only be settled in the Bundestag or in the Bundesrat’s second round. For Bavaria that means it is entirely open whether the trial will exist here at all – do not rely on it for your planning.

In stages – that is the key news from the training ordinance (Bundesrat document 365/26 of 10 June 2026): the new training rules – free choice of theory learning format, special drives based on your training level – are set to come into force as early as 1 January 2027. The remaining parts – such as the transparency register and the shorter practical exam – follow on 1 July 2027 (documents 330/26 and 365/26). Neither is final yet: the parliamentary process is ongoing. On 10 July 2026 the Bundesrat gave its opinion on the draft act (first reading), and on 29 July 2026 the draft together with the Federal Government’s counter-statement reached the Bundestag as document 21/7404. The first reading, committee stage and final vote are still outstanding there, followed by the Bundesrat’s second round. If the procedure is delayed, the dates can shift – we will update this page whenever the position changes.

Because the reform consists of two legal acts: the amendment of the Driving Instructor Act (covering professional rules and transparency duties) and the ordinance modernising driving school training with the concrete training and exam rules. Since 10 June 2026 the ordinance has been before the Bundesrat (document 365/26) – meaning the detailed rules on digital theory and special drives can be read in full for the first time. The two acts now move on separately: the act has been before the Bundestag since 29 July 2026 (document 21/7404), while the ordinance still awaits the Bundesrat’s approval. Both must then be promulgated. As soon as there is news, we update this page.

There is a clear transitional rule for this (§ 15 of the new training ordinance, document 365/26): training that began before 1 January 2027 may be completed under today’s rules. You do not have to switch to new rules mid-training, and nothing you have already completed is lost. We keep track of both legal frameworks and tell you exactly what applies in your case when you sign up.

No, for most Munich learners waiting does not pay off. A saving is not guaranteed even after the reform – you will still drive as many lessons as you need to be ready for the exam. In Munich there is a practical factor on top: the wait for a practical exam slot at the TÜV is currently around two months. This could get worse: if many people who are waiting all start at once after the reform, a rush is likely – with even longer waiting times at the licensing office, the TÜV and the driving schools. Notably, even the Federal Ministry for Transport justifies the early start of the training rules (1 January 2027) explicitly with preventing a “bow wave” of waiting learners. Whoever starts early secures their place in the system and is finished before the backlog hits. And if your training spans the turn of the year: the transitional rule (§ 15) lets you finish under today’s rules – so you lose nothing and gain time.

Yes. The reform is not yet law – anyone who waits for it postpones their mobility without a guaranteed return. You can start straight away at any of our three Munich locations. Whoever begins before 1 January 2027 may finish under today’s rules (§ 15 of the new ordinance) – and what you learn keeps its full validity after the reform, too.

For you, little changes in everyday terms – for a good reason: at our locations in Haidhausen, Giesing and Haar we already train in a performance-based way and use modern, digital learning tools for theory. Exactly what the reform wants to make the nationwide standard has long been standard with us. If your training spans the turn of the year 2026/27, the transitional rule applies: you may finish under the rules you started with – we will work out together what makes sense in your case.

Yes. The reform is not yet law – anyone waiting for it is postponing their mobility without getting a guaranteed benefit in return. You can start straight away at any of our three Munich locations. Whoever begins before 1 January 2027 may finish under today’s rules (§ 15 of the new ordinance) – and what you have learned keeps its full validity after the reform as well.

Yes, the pure driving time in the Class B practical exam is to be reduced from 30 to 25 minutes (40 instead of 55 minutes total) – matching the European minimum requirement, and now part of the ordinance text (document 365/26). This change is envisaged for 1 July 2027. The requirements themselves do not change: you must pass the same driving tasks as today.

Yes, for Classes C and D the rigid number requirement for special drives is dropped as well – the amount will likewise depend on your training level (envisaged from 1 January 2027). The professional driver qualification (Code 95) remains unaffected.

The Mobilithek is the state data platform that the transparency register envisaged in the draft bill is set to run on: driving schools will have to publish their prices and pass rates there. This duty is now part of the draft legislation – so it is more than a mere announcement. It creates transparency and makes choosing the right driving school much easier.

No. The reform only modernises the path to the license through more digitalisation. The driving ability you must demonstrate in the exam stays at exactly the same high safety level.

No, converting a foreign driving license still follows its own rules and runs through the driving license office of the KVR Munich. The reform mainly concerns regular initial training. If you are converting from a non-EU country and have to take a theory or practical exam, we guide you through the process at Peters in both German and English.

That is the plan. The draft act provides for a public transparency register kept by the Federal Ministry for Transport (section 57(3) of the Driving Instructor Act in the draft version), which from 1 July 2027 is to show prices and pass rates in the practical test. One important caveat: the rate is reported per licence class and separately for first attempts and retakes, and it is attributed to the driving school that certified the learner as ready for the test. A high rate can therefore also mean that a school sends its learners later – that is, trains them longer. So look at the class that concerns you, and read the figure together with the costs. Until then there are no official pass rates: anything quoted today is a self-reported figure.

Because the price notice on the wall is to be replaced by a reporting duty. Every driving school would have to submit its fees electronically to the Federal Ministry for Transport – and do so before applying them, broken down into fixed individual items per licence class (basic fee, driving lesson, simulator lesson, presentation for the test and others). They would be published via the state “Mobilithek” platform, and the draft expressly permits comparison portals to process the data (section 61(3)). But take care: what is compared are individual prices, not total costs. A low basic fee helps little if considerably more driving lessons turn out to be necessary.

For both groups two new harmonised codes are envisaged, to be entered on the existing car licence (class B) – so without a separate licence class: 96.01 for emergency vehicles over 3.5 t up to 5 t maximum authorised mass, and 96.02 for motorhomes over 3.5 t up to 4.25 t. Both are to be obtainable through a course, comparable to today’s code 96 for trailers. They only become applicable on 26 November 2029, however – as set out in the draft’s application provision (section 76a of the Driving Licence Ordinance: “Sections 6b to 6d apply from 26 November 2029”) and in the transitional rule of the new training ordinance (§ 15(2)). At the same time the so-called “large fire-brigade licence” for emergency vehicles over 5 t up to 7.5 t is re-regulated, in future with a practical test. The exact course content is still outstanding. Until then nothing changes for fire brigades, aid organisations and motorhome drivers.

That is what the draft act provides: proof of a classroom and teaching materials is to be dropped as a condition for the driving school licence (section 18 of the Driving Instructor Act in the draft version), because theory knowledge is to be acquirable entirely digitally outside the driving school. Envisaged from 1 July 2027. For you as a learner this mainly means: there will be driving schools without a classroom. Whether you want in-person theory lessons or prefer to learn digitally therefore becomes a question worth asking actively when choosing a driving school.