The Old-EV Loophole
The only old car you can still import cheap is electric — and the secondhand-EV lane is already moving.
The structural advantage that Law N1477 created
When Georgia's new excise law (N1477-VMS-XIMP) took effect on April 2, 2026, it reshaped the economics of every used-car import segment — except one. Battery electric vehicles received a double exemption: no excise duty on import, and no application of the six-year age cap. Every other fuel type now pays 4.5 GEL/cc on engines older than six years. A 2018 petrol car with a 2.0-litre engine carries roughly 9,000 GEL in excise at the border. A 2018 BEV carries zero.
The practical consequence is a structural arbitrage that did not exist before April. An importer choosing between a 2018 EV and a mechanically comparable 2018 ICE vehicle faces meaningfully different landed costs. At a USD/GEL rate of 2.641, 9,000 GEL is approximately $3,400 added to the price of a petrol car before any margin. For a segment where median petrol asking prices sit at $10,500, that is not a rounding error.
The law also removes the cliff-edge incentive that existed under the previous regime. Importers used to time purchases to keep cars just inside the age limit. With BEVs, that calculation disappears entirely. A 2015 or 2013 EV is importable on equal footing with a 2023 model, and the Euro-5 restrictions that now block pre-2013 petrol imports do not apply either.
Active Listings by Fuel Type — Price and Volume Distribution, June 2026
What the active-listing dataset shows
As of June 22, 2026, there are 1,118 active electric-vehicle listings in the AutoBridge dataset, with a median asking price of $15,000 and a median model year of 2021. That median year is notable: it sits just inside the new six-year threshold, meaning roughly half the current EV stock would be penalty-free even without the BEV exemption. The more telling figure is that 39.9% of active EV listings are model year 2020 or older — cars that would be firmly in the penalty zone for any ICE equivalent.
Clearance rates add a nuance worth stating plainly. Among electric listings, 42.3% have already cleared customs — lower, not higher, than petrol (48.2%) or plug-in hybrids (59.3%), which is consistent with EV stock skewing newer and more recently imported. Plug-in hybrids, which carry partial excise advantages of their own under the LHD-hybrid 60% discount, show 59.3% cleared on a stock of 231 listings and a median ask of $14,000. Hybrids sit at $12,500 across 4,422 listings. The petrol segment, with 15,463 active listings and a median ask of $10,500, is the largest by volume but carries the full burden of the new tariff structure for any car built before 2020.
What the active-listing dataset shows
As of June 22, 2026, there are 1,118 active electric-vehicle listings in the AutoBridge dataset, with a median asking price of $15,000 and a median model year of 2021. That median year is notable: it sits just inside the new six-year threshold, meaning roughly half the current EV stock would be penalty-free even without the BEV exemption. The more telling figure is that 39.9% of active EV listings are model year 2020 or older — cars that would be firmly in the penalty zone for any ICE equivalent.
Clearance rates add a nuance worth stating plainly. Among electric listings, 42.3% have already cleared customs — lower, not higher, than petrol (48.2%) or plug-in hybrids (59.3%), which is consistent with EV stock skewing newer and more recently imported. Plug-in hybrids, which carry partial excise advantages of their own under the LHD-hybrid 60% discount, show 59.3% cleared on a stock of 231 listings and a median ask of $14,000. Hybrids sit at $12,500 across 4,422 listings. The petrol segment, with 15,463 active listings and a median ask of $10,500, is the largest by volume but carries the full burden of the new tariff structure for any car built before 2020.
Active Listings by Fuel Type — Price and Volume Distribution, June 2026
Days to Sale by Fuel Type and Model Year — Sold Cohort Since April 1 2026
Velocity: old EVs move as fast as anything on the market
The velocity data from the sold cohort since April 1 gives the clearest signal. Old EVs — model year 2020 and earlier — sold in a median of 9 days. Old ICE vehicles sold in a median of 10 days. Newer EVs (MY2021 and later) sold in 16 days; newer ICE in 17 days.
The implication is significant. Older EVs are not languishing with a discount-seeking buyer pool. They are clearing faster than newer inventory in both fuel categories. The 119 transactions in the old-EV cohort since April are a small sample by petrol standards, but the 9-day median is consistent enough to suggest genuine demand — not distressed selling.
This pattern fits the macro logic. Buyers who understand the excise exemption can access a 2018 or 2019 EV at or below the price of a comparable-age petrol car, with no import penalty differential working against them. The market appears to be pricing this in.
Velocity: old EVs move as fast as anything on the market
The velocity data from the sold cohort since April 1 gives the clearest signal. Old EVs — model year 2020 and earlier — sold in a median of 9 days. Old ICE vehicles sold in a median of 10 days. Newer EVs (MY2021 and later) sold in 16 days; newer ICE in 17 days.
The implication is significant. Older EVs are not languishing with a discount-seeking buyer pool. They are clearing faster than newer inventory in both fuel categories. The 119 transactions in the old-EV cohort since April are a small sample by petrol standards, but the 9-day median is consistent enough to suggest genuine demand — not distressed selling.
This pattern fits the macro logic. Buyers who understand the excise exemption can access a 2018 or 2019 EV at or below the price of a comparable-age petrol car, with no import penalty differential working against them. The market appears to be pricing this in.
Days to Sale by Fuel Type and Model Year — Sold Cohort Since April 1 2026
The real constraints: charging infrastructure and battery confidence
The arbitrage has two genuine friction points that matter for any honest assessment.
The first is charging infrastructure. Tbilisi has approximately six DC fast chargers available to the public. SOCAR opened the South Caucasus' first all-electric filling station on February 20, 2026, which is a directional signal, but the network remains thin for a city where roughly 76% of Georgia's EV fleet is concentrated. A used EV in Tbilisi is viable with home charging; without it, the daily-use case weakens considerably. Outside Tbilisi, the constraint is more acute.
The second is battery condition. Geotab's fleet data places average BEV battery degradation at approximately 1.8% per year. A 2018 vehicle is now eight years old, implying roughly 14% cumulative capacity loss under that average — though actual degradation varies by chemistry, thermal management, and charging history. Secondhand EVs in the Georgian market arrive without standardised battery-health certificates, and buyers who do not request a third-party health check before purchase are accepting unknown range risk. This is not a reason to avoid old EVs, but it is a cost of diligence that the raw price differential does not capture.
Market structure and brand coverage
BYD has an official dealer presence in Georgia. Zeekr and Chery do not, which matters for warranty coverage and parts availability on Chinese EVs that are increasingly present in regional used-car flows. For Japanese and Korean EVs — Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Ioniq, Kia EV6 — parts pipelines are more established, though still not comparable to petrol equivalents.
The concentration of EV ownership in Tbilisi (approximately 76% of the national fleet) means that the liquid market for old EVs is effectively a Tbilisi market. Dealers sourcing inventory for regional cities face a thinner buyer pool and less charging certainty, which should factor into any import decision outside the capital.
Methodology
AutoBridge active-listing snapshot dated 2026-06-22: fuel type breakdown, median asking price, median model year, clearance rates, and model-year share within electric segment (n=1,118 electric, 231 PHEV, 4,422 hybrid, 15,463 petrol). · Velocity figures from the sold cohort since April 1, 2026: old-EV cohort n=119, median days-to-sale by fuel type and age band. · BEV excise exemption and six-year age-cap exemption: Law N1477-VMS-XIMP (effective 2026-04-02), confirmed per MEPA guidance. · Charging infrastructure: SOCAR all-electric station opening February 20, 2026; DC fast-charger count for Tbilisi from E-Space network data. · Battery degradation rate: Geotab commercial fleet study (~1.8%/yr average across multi-chemistry dataset). · USD/GEL rate 2.641 as of 2026-06-22; used for illustrative landed-cost conversion only. · Caveat: sold-cohort velocity is based on listings that transitioned to a sold state within the AutoBridge dataset; it reflects listed asking prices, not necessarily final transaction prices. Battery degradation figure is a fleet average and does not predict any individual vehicle's condition.
Over 128,000 unique listings published since January 1, 2026.