Car Import Duty Rates by Country: A Comparison Guide

Vehicle import duty exists for two broad reasons depending on the country: revenue generation, and protection of domestic vehicle manufacturing or assembly industries. This is why the range across destinations is so wide — a country with no domestic car industry and a strategic interest in an active used-vehicle trade, like the UAE, tends to keep duty low and predictable, while a country actively trying to build or protect a local assembly sector, such as parts of South America or South Asia, sets duty deliberately high to discourage imports of complete built-up vehicles.

Duty is also frequently structured around engine size, vehicle age, and CO2 emissions, meaning two identical shipments of the same model can attract different total charges purely because of an emissions rating or a few cubic centimetres of engine displacement. It's essential to get destination-specific figures for your exact vehicle rather than relying on a general country rate, because the headline percentage often only tells part of the story once age-based surcharges and VAT-equivalents are added.

The UAE applies a flat 5% customs duty on the CIF value for most vehicles, with no additional VAT on the import itself (though 5% VAT applies to many onward transactions within the country). Qatar mirrors this with a 5% duty rate and no general VAT on the import. Saudi Arabia's rate is somewhat higher at 5% customs duty but with additional excise-style considerations for certain vehicle categories, and stricter SASO conformity certificate requirements that add cost even where duty itself is modest.

This relative simplicity is a major reason the Gulf has become such an established destination for UK vehicle exports — the combination of low, flat duty and streamlined ports like Jebel Ali and Hamad makes landed cost forecasting far more reliable than in many other regions.

Nigeria's import duty on used vehicles is notably steep, combining a base customs duty of 35% with an additional levy that has historically pushed the effective rate considerably higher for many vehicle categories, alongside separate charges for vehicles above a certain age. Ghana applies duty based on the vehicle's home-delivery value with age-based depreciation adjustments, plus an environmental and ECOWAS levy, resulting in an effective rate that commonly lands between 20% and 45% depending on the vehicle's specifics.

Tanzania and Kenya both use an age-and-value based system, where older vehicles attract a higher effective duty per unit of value because the assessed depreciation is capped, discouraging the import of very old vehicles specifically. South Africa, by contrast, has historically restricted used vehicle imports for personal use quite tightly outside of specific relocation or inheritance provisions, meaning the relevant question there is often eligibility rather than duty rate alone.

The USA charges a comparatively low federal duty of 2.5% for passenger cars (25% for trucks under the so-called 'chicken tax'), but the real complexity in US imports comes from EPA and DOT compliance rather than duty itself — vehicles under 25 years old generally cannot be imported for road use unless they already meet US federal standards. Canada applies duty that varies by trade agreement status, often 6.1% for non-NAFTA/USMCA-origin vehicles, with the 15-year import rule being the more significant practical hurdle for UK-sourced cars.

Jamaica and other Caribbean states typically apply a combination of import duty, a general consumption tax, and a special consumption tax banded by engine size, which together can push the effective total tax burden on a mid-size petrol vehicle to well over 50% of its CIF value — considerably higher than the headline duty figure alone suggests.

Start with the CIF value — the vehicle's purchase price plus insurance and freight to the destination port, since almost every country calculates duty on this combined figure rather than the purchase price alone. Then identify whether the destination applies a flat customs duty rate, an age-banded rate, or an engine-size-banded rate, since this changes which of your vehicle's specifics actually matter for the calculation.

Next, check for additional layers beyond basic customs duty: VAT or its local equivalent, excise duty (common on larger engines or luxury vehicles), environmental levies, and any port-specific handling charges that, while not technically duty, still add to your total cost of getting the car on the road. Because these combinations are genuinely country-specific and change periodically with local budget announcements, we always recommend getting a written, current estimate for your specific vehicle and destination before committing to a shipment, rather than relying on a general percentage found online — our team can provide this alongside your shipping quote.