The NOx charge on imported cars

The NOx charge is the second part of VRT. It is often called the NOx levy. It is based on the nitrogen oxides a car emits, measured in milligrams per kilometre, and it is added to the CO2 charge.

It applies to all Category A vehicles, meaning passenger cars, except pure electric cars. The details here are from Revenue's NOx page dated 9 July 2026.

How the tiers work

The charge is built up in steps, like income tax bands. Each rate applies only to the milligrams that fall inside its tier.

• The first 40 mg/km are charged at €5 per mg.
• The next 40 mg/km are charged at €15 per mg.
• Anything above 80 mg/km is charged at €25 per mg.

The first two rows are the Toyota Aqua and Volkswagen Golf from Camber's worked examples. The last two are arithmetic on the same tiers.

The caps

The charge is capped by fuel type.

Where the tiers produce a figure above the cap, the cap is charged instead. On the 100 mg/km row above, a petrol car would pay the other-fuels cap and not €1,300.

When there is no NOx figure

If no evidence of the NOx figure is supplied, the cap applies.

This is the part that catches people importing from Japan. Japanese paperwork often lacks an EU NOx figure. A car that would be charged €40 on its real emissions could be charged the full cap for its fuel type because nothing on file shows the figure.

For a car that is not a diesel the cap is €600. For a diesel it is €4,850, which on a lower-priced car can be one of the largest lines in the whole import.

What to do about it

Before you bid, ask the exporter what emissions documents come with the car and whether any of them show a NOx figure.

Then ask Revenue or NCTS what evidence of a NOx figure is accepted for a car like yours. Camber cannot tell you what will be accepted, and you should not assume a document will be accepted because it shows a number.

When you estimate the cost, run it twice: once with the NOx figure you expect, and once at the cap. If the import only makes sense with the lower figure, you are relying on paperwork you may not have.

Where it sits in the total

The VRT total is the CO2 charge plus the NOx charge, less any electric vehicle relief.

For the Golf in Camber's worked example, that is €3,147 on CO2 plus €150 on NOx, giving €3,297. For the Aqua it is €1,021 plus €40, giving €1,061.

Both examples assume a NOx figure is available and accepted. At the cap, the Aqua's NOx line alone would be €600 in place of €40.

Electric cars

Pure electric cars pay no NOx charge. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids are not pure electric, so the charge applies to them in the usual way.

Estimating yours

Camber's calculator shows the NOx charge as its own line. For how the CO2 part works, see VRT explained.

These are planning figures. Revenue sets the charge when the car is presented. If you have been through the process, the anonymous outcomes data is where importers record what Revenue charged them.