Engine Displacement and Georgia's April 2026 Excise: What the Data Shows
We analyze active listings by engine size (cc) to explain how the April 2026 reform shifted the main cost lever from displacement brackets to vehicle age.
The reform changed the rules
Georgia's April 2026 excise reform — an amendment to the Georgian Tax Code (parliament.ge/legislation/29783) — swept away the old per-cc tariff table and replaced it with a simple two-rate flat system: 1.5 GEL per cc for vehicles aged six years or younger, and 4.5 GEL per cc for vehicles older than six years. Additional modifiers apply: right-hand-drive cars carry a ×3 multiplier; left-hand-drive hybrid/PHEV cars aged ≤6 years receive a 60% excise discount (effective rate ×0.4); electric vehicles owe neither excise nor import duty. There is no VAT on personal car imports.
Under this structure, the dominant cost lever is age, not displacement. Crossing the six-year threshold triples the excise bill for any engine size. A 2.0L (2,000 cc) car aged ≤6 years owes 3,000 GEL in excise; the same car at age seven or older owes 9,000 GEL — a 6,000 GEL gap that dwarfs most displacement-level differences within the same age group. Within the ≤6yr band, displacement scales linearly: every 100 cc adds 150 GEL to the bill. A 1.5L car (1,500 cc) at ≤6yr pays 2,250 GEL; a 3.0L (3,000 cc) pays 4,500 GEL.
The old pre-reform excise had a U-shaped curve with an effective penalty cliff at 3.0L+, which made the 1.5–2.0L bracket the classic "sweet spot." That curve no longer exists. There are no cc-level breakpoints in the current system.
Active Listing Count by Engine Displacement (cc)
Active listing distribution by engine size
The AutoBridge snapshot (June 30, 2026) covers 15,650 listings with engine size data, distributed across seven ordinal size bands. The cc-range labels below are assumed based on typical market segmentation — they are not embedded in the dataset.
Sub-1.0L (estimated): 44 listings, median ask $5,350 — a very thin segment of micro-displacement vehicles. ~1.0L–1.5L: 1,161 listings, median ask $12,600. ~1.5L–2.0L: 2,413 listings, median ask $10,700 — a sizeable segment with a median ask below the ~1.0–1.5L band, a function of market mix, not a tax-bracket effect. ~2.0L–2.5L: 5,233 listings, median ask $13,500 — the market's centre of mass, the highest listing count of any band. ~2.5L–3.0L: 2,909 listings, median ask $14,500. ~3.0L–3.5L: 2,009 listings, median ask $30,000. ~3.5L+: 1,881 listings, median ask $21,000 — this band's median sits below the ~3.0–3.5L band, the relationship is non-monotonic at both ends.
Active listing distribution by engine size
The AutoBridge snapshot (June 30, 2026) covers 15,650 listings with engine size data, distributed across seven ordinal size bands. The cc-range labels below are assumed based on typical market segmentation — they are not embedded in the dataset.
Sub-1.0L (estimated): 44 listings, median ask $5,350 — a very thin segment of micro-displacement vehicles. ~1.0L–1.5L: 1,161 listings, median ask $12,600. ~1.5L–2.0L: 2,413 listings, median ask $10,700 — a sizeable segment with a median ask below the ~1.0–1.5L band, a function of market mix, not a tax-bracket effect. ~2.0L–2.5L: 5,233 listings, median ask $13,500 — the market's centre of mass, the highest listing count of any band. ~2.5L–3.0L: 2,909 listings, median ask $14,500. ~3.0L–3.5L: 2,009 listings, median ask $30,000. ~3.5L+: 1,881 listings, median ask $21,000 — this band's median sits below the ~3.0–3.5L band, the relationship is non-monotonic at both ends.
Active Listing Count by Engine Displacement (cc)
Median Ask Price by Engine Displacement (cc)
Buying strategy under the April 2026 regime
1. Lead with age. The single most important number on any prospective import is the model year. Keeping the vehicle within the ≤6yr bracket saves 3 GEL/cc in excise — three times more per cc than any equivalent reduction in displacement within the same age group. A 2.5L car at age five pays 3,750 GEL in excise; a 1.8L car at age eight pays 8,100 GEL.
2. Within ≤6yr, every 100 cc adds 150 GEL. There is no cliff, but the accumulation is real. A 3.0L car ≤6yr pays 4,500 GEL versus 2,250 GEL for a 1.5L in the same age group. For buyers who can meet their needs with a smaller engine, smaller is always cheaper on excise — linearly so.
3. Left-hand-drive hybrids aged ≤6yr are substantially cheaper to import. The ×0.4 modifier brings the effective excise rate to 0.6 GEL/cc. A 2.0L LHD hybrid ≤6yr owes just 1,200 GEL in excise versus 3,000 GEL for an equivalent petrol car.
4. Treat "grandfathered" pre-reform stock cautiously. Some sellers reference prior customs clearance dates to argue a lower excise applies. The scope and cutoff date of any overland grandfathering is reported but not officially confirmed by the Revenue Service — verify cleared paperwork before treating such claims as settled.
Buying strategy under the April 2026 regime
1. Lead with age. The single most important number on any prospective import is the model year. Keeping the vehicle within the ≤6yr bracket saves 3 GEL/cc in excise — three times more per cc than any equivalent reduction in displacement within the same age group. A 2.5L car at age five pays 3,750 GEL in excise; a 1.8L car at age eight pays 8,100 GEL.
2. Within ≤6yr, every 100 cc adds 150 GEL. There is no cliff, but the accumulation is real. A 3.0L car ≤6yr pays 4,500 GEL versus 2,250 GEL for a 1.5L in the same age group. For buyers who can meet their needs with a smaller engine, smaller is always cheaper on excise — linearly so.
3. Left-hand-drive hybrids aged ≤6yr are substantially cheaper to import. The ×0.4 modifier brings the effective excise rate to 0.6 GEL/cc. A 2.0L LHD hybrid ≤6yr owes just 1,200 GEL in excise versus 3,000 GEL for an equivalent petrol car.
4. Treat "grandfathered" pre-reform stock cautiously. Some sellers reference prior customs clearance dates to argue a lower excise applies. The scope and cutoff date of any overland grandfathering is reported but not officially confirmed by the Revenue Service — verify cleared paperwork before treating such claims as settled.
Median Ask Price by Engine Displacement (cc)
Methodology
AutoBridge active-listing snapshot (June 30, 2026): 15,650 listings with engine size data across seven ordinal displacement buckets (Sub-1.0L to 3.5L+). All figures are raw medians and counts; no cohort correction applied. Displacement bucket cc-range labels are assumed based on typical Georgian market segmentation — not embedded in the dataset. Excise basis: Georgian Tax Code amendment effective April 1–2, 2026 (parliament.ge/legislation/29783): 1.5 GEL/cc (≤6yr LHD), 4.5 GEL/cc (>6yr LHD), hybrid ≤6yr LHD ×0.4, RHD ×3, EV zero excise/duty. Import duty formula unchanged: (0.05 × cc) + (cc × age × 0.0025) GEL; processing fee 150 GEL.
Over 128,000 unique listings published since January 1, 2026.