China Car Import Cost Calculator

Assessed on: CIF value assessed by Nigeria Customs, not your commercial invoice alone.

Electric vehicles: Nigeria has run VAT and levy reliefs for electric vehicles at various times. Do not assume an exemption applies to your HS code and shipment date without written confirmation.

Before you quote: Nigeria's 2026 changes were widely reported as an "import tariff cut to 5%". That describes the NAC levy; the 20% base import duty was not reduced. Published breakdowns still disagree on the landed NAC rate for cars and on which valuation method sets the CISS/FOB levy, so two lines above are shown as bands. Have your clearing agent confirm the full stack in writing before you price a unit.

Assessed on: CIF value; duty band is set by engine size for combustion vehicles.

Electric vehicles: The EV band is the whole reason a Chinese BEV or EREV can land near an ICE SUV in Ghana. That advantage rides entirely on a government incentive, so confirm the current rate before you quote a retail customer, not after.

Assessed on: KRA values from its CRSP schedule (a published retail price list, depreciated for age) — NOT your FOB or CIF invoice. Treat the figure below as a shape check, then re-run it on the CRSP value for the exact model.

Electric vehicles: The 10% excise row for electric and hybrid vehicles is the single biggest lever in Kenya — it replaces a petrol band that can reach 35%.

Before you quote: Kenya is the market where a CIF-based estimate misleads most often, because KRA assesses on CRSP. If the CRSP value for your model is higher than your CIF, every line above scales up with it.

Assessed on: CIF value, but customs may substitute its own assessment if the declared price looks below market.

Before you quote: Duty and VAT are the easy part in the UAE. The costs that actually derail shipments are GCC-spec conformity and the ESMA certificate — a unit that fails on lighting, cooling or a missing conformity certificate cannot register until it is modified.

Assessed on: CIF value as assessed by ZATCA.

Before you quote: Customs duty on vehicles is set per tariff line and is not published here as a flat rate — confirm your exact HS code with ZATCA. Conformity is the real gate: register the shipment through the SABER platform and obtain the shipment conformity certificate BEFORE loading. A GCC-spec claim is not a substitute.

Assessed on: Customs value under EAEU rules.

Before you quote: The 15,000-unit duty-and-VAT-free EV quota was exhausted around 15 October 2025. An electric car no longer clears free — budget 16% VAT plus the recycling fee. The recycling fee (50 MRP × a coefficient for engine volume and age) is not modelled here; confirm the current figure before quoting.

Assessed on: Customs value under EAEU rules.

Before you quote: The recycling fee (утильсбор) is the number that decides whether a unit pencils out, and it is deliberately NOT estimated here. Since December 2025 it scales with engine power and the preferential rate is kept only up to 160 hp — nearly every popular Chinese export SUV sits above that line. It is indexed annually and has changed repeatedly. Model it per unit before you commit to a container.

Assessed on: CIF value as assessed by Aduana.

Before you quote: The Chile–China FTA can give preferential treatment to qualifying Chinese-origin goods, so customs duty is not shown as a flat rate — verify the exact 8703 subheading, the 2026 preferential rate and your origin certificate. Preference is not automatic, and if a condition fails Chile applies the general tariff. Separately, a vehicle registered in Chile needs the applicable 3CV homologation route.

Assessed on: Customs value; treatment is derived from HS code, origin, sending country and trading country. Import VAT is charged on customs value + customs duty + excise (Tax Code Art. 254); the utilisation fee and customs clearance fee are fixed BRV amounts outside that base.

Electric vehicles: A battery-electric car pays 0% duty and no excise in Uzbekistan, against 15% plus a per-cm³ charge for a new petrol car. That is the whole EV advantage, and it is smaller than it looks: since 1 May 2025 the utilisation fee on an EV (120 BRV up to 3 years old, 210 BRV after) is the same as on a 1,000-2,000 cm³ petrol car. Plug-in hybrids and EREVs are NOT treated as EVs by the tariff: budget 15% duty for a new unit.

Before you quote: The petrol/diesel duty lines above show only the percentage part of a mixed rate. Uzbekistan adds a fixed US$ amount per cm³ of engine (new ≤1 year: $0.4-1.25; used: $3), and the calculator does not add it, so a combustion quote from this page is too low. Three more charges are fixed amounts, not percentages, and are also not in the total: the utilisation fee (petrol/hybrid by engine size, ≤3 years / >3 years: under 1,000 cm³ 30/90 BRV, 1,000-2,000 cm³ 120/210, 2,000-3,000 cm³ 180/330, 3,000-3,500 cm³ 180/390, over 3,500 cm³ 300/480; battery EV 120/210); the customs clearance fee per declaration (1 BRV up to $10,000 customs value, 1.5 BRV to $20,000, 2.5 BRV to $40,000, 4 BRV to $60,000, rising to 25 BRV at $1m); and the BRV itself, which is indexed (reported as 440,000 so'm from 1 September 2026). Age drives everything: a unit more than one year past its production date loses the 15% rate, and a China-registered "zero-km used" car may be declared as used (40% + $3 per cm³). The 0%/5% concession for sub-1,200 cm³ cars ended on 1 January 2026, and the tariff doubles for non-MFN origins. Run the HS code in the Integrated Tariff service before you quote. Clearing in Kazakhstan is not a shortcut: the Kazakhstan-only clause blocks it.

Assessed on: Customs value (CIF) converted to birr at the customs exchange rate. Customs can replace your invoice with its own valuation. VAT is charged on customs value plus duty. The social welfare levy and the 3% advance income tax are left out of the VAT base.

Electric vehicles: Only a battery-electric car has a rate stack here. The 2022 "tax-free EV" package has been partly unwound. VAT returned at 15% with the August 2024 VAT Proclamation, and the fully built duty is 15% or 20% depending on the source. The excise and 10% surtax exemptions for EVs are still reported as current, but we found them only in Ministry announcements and press, not in legal text. If either one lapses, the unit pays excise plus 10% surtax, and the 3% levy then drops away.

Before you quote: Petrol and diesel passenger cars cannot be imported into Ethiopia. The ban has applied since early 2024, was extended to SKD/CKD kits in May 2025 and to trucks in October 2025. We show no rates for them. Hybrids, PHEVs and EREVs have a combustion engine, and we found no primary text confirming they can be imported. Treat them as not importable unless Customs gives written admissibility and HS classification before the car leaves China. For a BEV, the biggest open item is the duty rate (15% or 20%). We could not reach the Customs Commission site on 2026-09-26 to settle it. Foreign-exchange approval from your bank is often a harder constraint than the tax itself.

Assessed on: Customs value under the GCC Common Customs Law (transaction value first); duty is levied on the CIF value. Import VAT is charged on that customs value plus the duty and any other taxes or charges due on import (VAT Law, Article 34).

Electric vehicles: Oman granted battery-electric and hydrogen cars a 100% customs duty exemption, 0% VAT and a waiver of the ROP registration fee for three years from 1 July 2023, "subject to extension". That period ran to 30 June 2026 and we found no published extension as of September 2026, so the figures above charge a BEV the standard duty and VAT. Treat the exemption as expired unless the Tax Authority, Oman Customs or your broker confirms an extension in writing. PHEV, EREV and hybrid models were never covered — the conditions require a fully electric motor or hydrogen engine.

Before you quote: Two traps. First, do not price a BEV at zero duty and zero VAT: the 2023 exemption was for three years and no extension has been published. Second, if the cars come through Jebel Ali and are cleared duty-paid in the UAE, Oman still charges its own import VAT, and duty can be charged again if the UAE duty-paid evidence is missing or does not match the VINs. The fixed MoCIIP permit and certificate fees (OMR 5 each) and ROP registration fees are not modelled here.

Assessed on: Customs value (CIF) as set in the Final Classification and Value Report (RFCV) issued before the declaration is lodged, not your invoice alone. All TEC lines are ad valorem on that value.

Electric vehicles: No electric-vehicle import relief is in force: the March 2026 customs tariff charges a new built-up battery-electric car (8703.80.19) the same 20% duty and 18% VAT as a petrol car, and the 2026 fiscal annex adds no EV import measure. Do not quote an exemption unless your broker can point to the text for your HS line and arrival date.

Before you quote: The 10% special tax on passenger cars of 13 fiscal horsepower or more is not a column in the customs tariff, so it is the line most often left out of a quote, and it depends on the fiscal CV rating rather than on whether the car is petrol or electric. Used passenger cars may not be imported if more than five years have passed since first registration abroad (Decree 2017-792), so price Chinese stock as new. Fixed per-declaration fees (IT/SYDAM fee, cargo tracking note BSC, RFCV inspection, port charges) and broker fees are not in the percentages above, and only a licensed customs broker can lodge the declaration.

Markets with no publishable flat rate

In these countries the charge is derived per HS code, per VIN or per importer, so a single percentage would be wrong more often than right. We link the government service instead.