Car Shipping to Germany

Why ship a car to Germany from the UK

The Ship Cars is a specialist UK vehicle export company moving cars, SUVs, classics, motorbikes and light commercials to Germany every month. Post-Brexit Europe is still the lowest-friction export market for British-registered vehicles, with weekly RORO frequency, mature customs brokerage and predictable inland trucking once the vehicle clears the destination port. Typical clients on this lane include EU-based dealers sourcing British stock, alongside private owners relocating to Germany and returning residents importing a personal vehicle. Our UK-to-Germany corridor is engineered around predictable transit, transparent pricing and full compliance with Germany customs.

Vehicles depart from Liverpool, Tilbury, Immingham and arrive at Bremerhaven, Hamburg via short-sea Channel and North Sea routings. Typical door-to-port turnaround is 3–6 days to bremerhaven/hamburg from tilbury/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 Germany car shipping works

Every shipment to Germany follows the same six-step pipeline: free quotation, UK collection or self-drop at Liverpool, bonded UK warehousing and pre-shipment photos, HMRC NOVA / C88 export clearance handled by our UK customs clearance team, ocean transit to Bremerhaven (and onward feeder to Hamburg 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 Germany.

Germany ports, routing and transit

Vehicles bound for Germany are typically routed through Bremerhaven as the lead discharge port, with Hamburg available as alternatives depending on sailing schedule and onward inland transport. We schedule loads to match weekly RORO sailing schedules to Germany 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 Bremerhaven
• Port of Hamburg
• UK departure: Southampton
• UK departure: Tilbury
• UK departure: Bristol (Portbury)

Germany import duty, VAT and customs in 2026

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

• EU type approval and Certificate of Conformity (CoC)
• Post-Brexit 10% import duty and country-specific VAT (TVA, IVA, MwSt, BTW)
• National roadworthiness inspections (ITV, contrôle technique, TÜV, APK, IPO)
• Re-registration with local plates and CO2-based road tax

Document checklist for Germany

• V5C registration
• Passport
• Commercial invoice
• Bill of Lading
• Certificate of Conformity
• TÜV inspection certificate

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

Other Europe destinations from the UK

We ship to 8+ other Europe countries from the UK on the same trade lanes as Germany. Many customers shipping to Germany also enquire about France, Netherlands, Belgium because routing, customs documentation and transit windows overlap.