Car Shipping to Chile

Why ship a car to Chile from the UK

The Ship Cars is a specialist UK vehicle export company moving cars, SUVs, classics, motorbikes and light commercials to Chile every month. Trans-Atlantic and Panama-routed services into the Americas split cleanly between East Coast RORO calls (Halifax, New York, Baltimore) and container groupage to Gulf, Pacific and Latin American ports. Compliance regimes (EPA, DOT, Transport Canada, INMETRO) drive most of the cost and timeline. Typical clients on this lane include 25-year-rule classic importers, alongside private owners relocating to Chile and returning residents importing a personal vehicle. Our UK-to-Chile corridor is engineered around predictable transit, transparent pricing and full compliance with Chile customs.

Vehicles depart from Tilbury, Immingham, Liverpool and arrive at Valparaiso, San Antonio via Gulf routing via Houston and Veracruz. Typical door-to-port turnaround is 25–35 days to chilean ports from southampton, supported by marine all-risks insurance, GPS-tracked UK collection and bonded warehousing where required. For an instant indication of cost, use our car shipping cost calculator or request a tailored quote on our quote page.

How UK to Chile car shipping works

Every shipment to Chile follows the same six-step pipeline: free quotation, UK collection or self-drop at Tilbury, bonded UK warehousing and pre-shipment photos, HMRC NOVA / C88 export clearance handled by our UK customs clearance team, ocean transit to Valparaiso (and onward feeder to San Antonio where required), and destination customs handover. You choose the shipping mode that best matches the vehicle profile and budget — see the full breakdown on our car shipping costs page or compare live RORO sailing dates to Chile.

Chile ports, routing and transit

Vehicles bound for Chile are typically routed through Valparaiso as the lead discharge port, with San Antonio available as alternatives depending on sailing schedule and onward inland transport. We schedule loads to match weekly RORO sailing schedules to Chile and consolidated shared container departures from the UK. For sole-use loads we book 20ft and 40ft container slots on the same rotation.

• Port of Valparaiso
• Port of San Antonio
• UK departure: Southampton
• UK departure: Tilbury
• UK departure: Bristol (Portbury)

Chile import duty, VAT and customs in 2026

Importing a vehicle into Chile is regulated and document-driven. The headline framework is summarised below; our team verifies every figure against the latest Chile customs schedule before quoting.

• EPA, DOT, Transport Canada and INMETRO compliance
• 25-year and 15-year classic-import exemptions
• Customs bonds, brokers and HS code 8703 classification
• Gulf, Atlantic and Pacific routings via Panama Canal

Document checklist for Chile

• V5C registration
• Passport
• Commercial invoice
• Bill of Lading
• Certificate of origin

For full country-specific customs rules, see our Chile import guides and articles, our UK and Chile customs clearance service, or use the duty-inclusive cost calculator for a landed estimate to Valparaiso.

Other Americas destinations from the UK

We ship to 8+ other Americas countries from the UK on the same trade lanes as Chile. Many customers shipping to Chile also enquire about Argentina, Brazil because routing, customs documentation and transit windows overlap.