Overview
- Officials, citing ADAC reporting, now expect a possible national rollout in November 2026 but say the feature is still in internal testing and no firm release date has been fixed.
- The licence will be offered through the existing i‑Kfz app as an optional supplement to the plastic card so drivers can show an official, digitally signed licence for domestic checks without discarding the physical document.
- Using the digital licence requires activating the personal ID online‑ID function and a six‑digit PIN and works on many phones running iOS 17 or Android 12 and newer, though some manufacturers and models are currently incompatible.
- Digital proofs are cryptographically signed and protected by PIN or biometrics and can be locked if a phone is lost, but privacy experts at recent hearings warned about the risk from unchecked data requests and the challenge of limiting disclosed attributes to what is strictly needed.
- Broader rollout plans call for the licence to appear in the German EUDI‑Wallet in early 2027 while full EU harmonisation could take until about 2030, and the system’s value will depend on public agencies and private services adopting live verification checks.