How to legally cut your customs bill on an EV in Georgia

Clearing a gasoline car in Georgia rests on two payments: excise and VAT. Excise is charged per cubic centimeter of displacement (1.5 GEL per cc for cars up to six years old inclusive, 4.5 GEL for anything older), and it's usually the largest variable in the whole calculation. An EV physically has no displacement, so with left-hand drive its excise is zero and that entire line drops out; a right-hand-drive EV pays a fixed 3,000 GEL set by law. That's where the main saving comes from, and it is entirely legal.

What's left on the bill once excise is gone

Zero excise doesn't mean no customs bill. VAT at 18 percent is charged on the car's customs value, and with no excise added, the VAT base is simply the value itself. Then the fixed part: customs fee, inspection, declaration and technical passport, around 272 GEL in total. That portion is the same for an EV as for a diesel pickup: it doesn't depend on what drives the wheels.

It's a one-step calculation. A left-hand-drive EV with a customs value of $25,000 (about 67,500 GEL) gives 12,150 GEL of VAT plus 272 GEL of fees: 12,422 GEL. A 2021 gasoline car of the same value with a 3.0-liter engine pays 3,000 × 1.5 = 4,500 GEL of excise, 12,960 GEL of VAT and the same 272 GEL, so 17,732 GEL all in. The gap is around 5,300 GEL, roughly two thousand dollars. And if the gasoline equivalent is over six years old, its excise climbs to 13,500 GEL and the gap against the EV becomes threefold.

Hybrids are a separate, messier story

A hybrid is not an EV. It has a combustion engine with real displacement, so excise does apply. There is a break, but it's narrow: left-hand-drive hybrids up to six years old inclusive get 60 percent off the base rate, a 0.4 coefficient, so 0.6 GEL per cc instead of 1.5. The moment the car turns seven, the break disappears entirely and the hybrid pays the same 4.5 GEL per cc as any gasoline car. The law has no intermediate regime for hybrids over six years old.

• Left-hand-drive EV: zero excise, displacement doesn't apply; 18 percent VAT and around 272 GEL of fees remain
• Left-hand-drive hybrid up to six years old inclusive: 0.6 GEL per cc instead of 1.5, a 60 percent cut
• Hybrid over six years old: no break at all, 4.5 GEL per cc, same as a gasoline car
• Right-hand drive triples the rate in every age band, and that applies to hybrids too; a right-hand-drive EV pays a fixed 3,000 GEL
• Fixed processing charges are identical regardless of drivetrain

Where the savings come in smaller than advertised

Import agents love to compare a single line (excise versus zero) and stay quiet about the rest. Meanwhile the customs value of an EV is often higher than a gasoline car of the same class and year, and VAT is charged on exactly that value. The saving is usually real, but on recent cars it's measured in $1,500–$2,000, not in multiples: the multiple only appears against a gasoline car that's over six years old with a big engine.

The second issue is battery condition. The traction battery is half the value of an EV, and it degrades independently of body mileage. A 2019 car with 92 percent capacity remaining and the same car at 74 percent are not worth the same money, and that figure appears nowhere on a Copart or IAAI lot page. Excise you saved at customs goes straight to zero if the battery module needs replacing or major repair a year later.

What to check on an EV before you bid

• Battery state of health: actual remaining capacity as a percentage, read via diagnostics
• BMS fault history and any evidence of battery protection events stored in the modules
• Damage type from the lot code: underbody impact is more serious on an EV than a gasoline car, because that's where the battery pack sits
• Whether the charging equipment is present and complete: buying it separately costs more than you'd think
• Connector compatibility with charging infrastructure in Tbilisi and along the Tbilisi–Batumi highway

How to price the advantage honestly

A proper comparison looks like this: take two specific lots (an EV and a gasoline or hybrid equivalent of the same class and year) and run the full chain on each. Hammer price, auction fees, container shipping to Poti, excise at that car's rate, 18 percent VAT on the value plus excise, around 272 GEL of processing, port and terminal. The gap between the two final numbers is the real saving, not the gap on the excise line alone. Running both through our customs calculator takes a couple of minutes.

Then add running costs: electricity versus gasoline over 15,000–20,000 km a year in Georgian conditions, insurance, and a resale forecast that accounts for battery health. Only on that full picture can you see whether an EV really is the better deal in your case, or whether the advantage exists only in the importer's pitch.

The rates above have been in force since April 2, 2026: zero excise for left-hand-drive EVs (3,000 GEL with right-hand drive), 0.6 GEL per cc for left-hand-drive hybrids up to six years old inclusive, 4.5 GEL for everything else over six years old. The final figure is still calculated on the customs value, which customs sets from its own database rather than from the number on your invoice, so a few hundred lari of drift from the estimate is possible even when the rates are known exactly.