The Six-Year Window

Georgia's used-car import market has been reshaped by two regulatory instruments operating simultaneously. The Euro-5 emissions standard, in force since 2024, prohibits the fresh import of vehicles manufactured before 2013. The excise law (Law N1477-VMS-XIMP, effective 2026-04-02) then splits what remains into two cost regimes: cars older than six years bear a rate of 4.5 GEL/cc, while cars six years old or newer are taxed at 1.5 GEL/cc. Together, these filters compress what was once a broad import funnel into a band of roughly six model years.

The compression is not merely regulatory abstraction. It shows up directly in active listing data. Of the three model-year cohorts visible in the AutoBridge dataset as of 2026-06-22, each occupies a distinct position in terms of volume, price, and market liquidity — and the picture they form is a staircase with a sharp step at every threshold.

At 13,567 listings, the 2013-2019 model-year band is the single largest cohort in the active dataset. It is also the cohort now subject to the punitive 4.5 GEL/cc excise rate. For a mid-size sedan with a 2.0-litre engine (approximately 2,000 cc), that translates to 9,000 GEL in excise alone — roughly $3,408 at today's rate of 2.641 GEL per dollar — before accounting for customs duties, VAT, or logistics.

The median ask in this band is $9,000. That figure represents the vehicle price on the listing, not the landed cost to the importer. A buyer acquiring a 2016 model at the median ask and clearing it through customs at 4.5 GEL/cc is looking at total acquisition costs that push well above $12,000 for average-displacement vehicles. Cleared share stands at 48.1% — roughly half this stock has moved, meaning the market is active but not saturated. The high volume reflects both existing domestic inventory and continued arrivals from regional markets, where these cars remain plentiful and affordable to source.

Cars from 2020 onwards — using model year as a practical proxy for the law's age test, which is legally set by production or first-registration date rather than MY — generally qualify for the 1.5 GEL/cc excise rate, one-third of what the older cohort pays. On the same 2,000 cc example, the excise bill drops to 3,000 GEL (approximately $1,136). That difference is meaningful enough to influence sourcing decisions at the importer level, and the data suggests a significant volume of fresh stock has been directed toward this band.

The 12,107 listings in this cohort trail the 2013-2019 band only slightly in volume. But cleared share is just 25.0%, indicating that a large proportion of this stock is still in transit or recently arrived and not yet absorbed by end buyers. The median ask is $17,000 — nearly twice the overall dataset median of $12,000, and nearly four times the pre-2013 median. The favorable excise rate is real, but it applies to vehicles that were simply more expensive to source to begin with.

The importable ICE window is not closing — but it is moving upward in price and narrowing in model-year range. Each year that passes, more of the 2013-2019 cohort ages beyond six years without leaving the heavy-excise bracket (those cars are already there), and the practical floor of the 1.5 GEL/cc lane shifts to 2021 and eventually 2022. Importers who sourced heavily into 2013-2019 stock are now competing on a high-cost basis; those who pivoted to 2020+ stock earlier face better excise economics but higher capital requirements.

The cleared-share differential tells the underlying story: 91.6% clearance below 2013, 48.1% in the middle band, 25.0% at the top. Liquidity decreases as price rises and stock freshness increases. The market is not oversupplied — but it is in the early stages of digesting a structurally more expensive import funnel.