Car Shipping to Ireland

Why ship a car to Ireland from the UK

The Ship Cars is a specialist UK vehicle export company moving cars, SUVs, classics, motorbikes and light commercials to Ireland 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 Ireland and returning residents importing a personal vehicle. Our UK-to-Ireland corridor is engineered around predictable transit, transparent pricing and full compliance with Ireland customs.

Vehicles depart from Liverpool, Tilbury, Immingham and arrive at Dublin, Cork, Rosslare via short-sea Channel and North Sea routings. Typical door-to-port turnaround is 1–2 days to dublin/cork from holyhead/liverpool/pembroke, 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 Ireland car shipping works

Every shipment to Ireland 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 Dublin (and onward feeder to Cork 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 Ireland.

Ireland ports, routing and transit

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

Ireland import duty, VAT and customs in 2026

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

• V5C registration
• Passport
• Commercial invoice
• Bill of Lading
• VRT declaration form

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

Other Europe destinations from the UK

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