What changes when you import a supercar worth more than €150,000
On these cars, the malus, the transport and the authenticity check weigh more than the few thousand euros anyone knocks off the asking price. A price can be renegotiated. A mistake on any of the three cannot be undone.
The malus, and the cap most calculators miss
What is called the malus, the French CO2 penalty tax, is in fact two separate taxes, each due once, on the car's first registration in France. The first is the tax on carbon dioxide emissions, article L. 421-62 of the code des impositions sur les biens et services (the CIBS). The second is the tax on the masse en ordre de marche, the vehicle's mass in running order, entry G on the carte grise, the French registration certificate, and not its unladen weight nor the gross vehicle weight shown in entry F.2 (article L. 421-75).
On a recent supercar the CO2 tax goes straight to the top of its scale. That is precisely why the weight tax often adds nothing at all: article L. 421-74 cuts the weight tax, never the CO2 tax, until the two together fit under the cap. The article requires the sum of the two taxes not to exceed the highest rate of the applicable scale, and that cap is calculated after the age-based reduction.
That last clause is where the money sits. On a large SUV first registered in 2026 and four months old, the cap is not €80,000 but €80,000 less the reduction for four months, 6%, so €75,200. A calculator that applies the undiscounted cap makes the buyer pay €4,800 too much. Our registration cost calculator (in French) applies the rule as it is written.
The reduction itself changed on 1 March 2025. The old 10% for each year started no longer applies; it was replaced by bands of months, in article L. 421-7-2 of the CIBS, created by article 29 of the loi de finances pour 2025. Age is counted in rolling months from first registration and rounded up, so a car of twelve months and one day counts as thirteen.
The scale is the one from the year of first registration
The scale applied is the one in force in the year of the car's first registration, including when that first registration took place abroad. That is article L. 421-59 of the CIBS, which refers back to article L. 421-5, with article L. 421-72 doing the same job for the weight tax; the tax administration's own doctrine, BOI-AIS-MOB-10-20-40, states it in as many words.
On a car bought new in France the point is academic. On an imported car it is missed even more often than the cap is, and it is worth tens of thousands of euros. A supercar first registered in Germany in 2021 falls under the 2021 scale, capped at €30,000, not under the current scale capped at €80,000. Apply the 43% reduction for a car of that age and the figure is €17,100. A car written off as unaffordable at the current scale is perfectly reasonable at the scale for its own year.
| Year of first registration | Threshold | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 108 g/km | €80,000 |
| 2025 (from 1 March) | 113 g/km | €70,000 |
| 2024 (and January to February 2025) | 118 g/km | €60,000 |
| 2023 | 123 g/km | €50,000 |
| 2022 | 128 g/km | €40,000 |
| 2021 | 133 g/km | €30,000 |
| 2020 (from 1 March) | 138 g/km | €20,000 |
Scales do not switch over on 1 January. The loi de finances pour 2025 brought its scale into force only on 1 March 2025, so a car first registered in January 2025 still falls under the 2024 scale, €10,000 softer on the cap. The full method, article by article, is on our page on the malus on imported vehicles: le malus d'un véhicule importé (in French).
Transport: enclosed transporter, declared value, proper cover
An enclosed transporter, wheel straps rather than chassis straps, the value declared to the carrier and specific cover for the journey. None of it is optional: an exceptional car carried on an open transporter arrives stone-chipped, and a claim for chip damage is painful to pursue and rarely paid in full.
The declared value has to match the real value. A claim on an under-declared car is settled at the declared figure, not at market value. Under-declaring saves a little on the transport invoice and costs the difference on the only day it matters.
We keep open transporters for ordinary stock. Above roughly €150,000 nothing of ours travels that way, and the carrier's cover is read before loading rather than after unloading. On the longest routes the car is moved by a single crew, with no transfer between depots, because every handling operation is an opportunity for damage that nobody sees happen.
Authenticity: what gets checked before any money moves
At these figures the check does not stop at the service book. It covers the consistency of the chassis number, the manufacturer's own records, and the availability of a certificate of authenticity from the marque where one exists. We look at the car on site before any money moves, and you receive photographs, video and a written report. You are free to appoint your own expert as well, at your expense.
The findings that make us walk away from a car, and that show up if you look for them:
- Competition use that was never declared
- A re-stamped chassis number
- A foreign finance agreement still outstanding
- A charge registered in the country of origin
A charge registered abroad does not appear in the French register, the SIV (système d'immatriculation des véhicules). The register in the seller's own country has to be searched, and that is not a step a private buyer can take alone. That single check settles most of the enquiries that reach us: a clean car goes forward, a car carrying an unsettled charge does not, whatever the price.
Insurance: an agreed value, arranged before delivery
A high-value imported car usually needs the insurer's agreement before cover starts, and a valeur agréée, an agreed value, meaning a value fixed contractually when the policy is taken out. Without one, a total loss is settled on an expert's valuation made at the time of the claim, which on a rare model rarely ends well.
This is settled before delivery, not after. A car that arrives without suitable cover stays in our secure storage until it has it. Insurers commonly ask for photographs, the purchase invoice and sometimes a condition about where the car is kept overnight, so it is worth opening the subject with your broker from day one, while the car is still being bought.
How buying through Autonero works
Send us the link to the listing. You get back the complete price and the tax figure, calculated on the scale for the year of first registration rather than the current one. We inspect the car on site, and if something turns out different from the listing, we do not buy.
Then we buy the car, we bring it into France, and you buy it from Autonero: a French invoice and the two-year legal guarantee, enforceable against a seller established in France rather than one abroad. We are not acting as a mandataire, an agent who buys in your name for a fee; the car is ours before it is yours, which is what puts the invoice, the guarantee and the risk on our side. 40% on order, the balance on delivery.
The registration paperwork is ours as well: the quitus fiscal, the clearance issued by the French tax office confirming that VAT has been dealt with; the certificate of conformity, the European COC; the contrôle technique, the French roadworthiness test, where the car needs one; and the carte grise itself, whose regional component is billed per cheval fiscal, the French fiscal horsepower unit. A car with no European type approval, typically one built for the United States or Japan, first goes through a réception à titre isolé, an individual approval granted by the DREAL, the regional state body in charge of it.
Handover takes place at our site in Nogent-le-Phaye, 10 rue du Bois Paris, 28630 Nogent-le-Phaye, Eure-et-Loir, six kilometres from Chartres, or the car is delivered to you. Call +33 9 80 80 15 10, or send us the listing (form in French).
If the car is not staying in France
A car shipped outside the European Union is never registered in France, so there is no malus and no French registration tax to pay. A delivery outside the European Union is exempt from French VAT under article 262, I of the CGI, against proof of export; the invoicing regime is confirmed case by case before you commit.
Routes, timings and customs paperwork are set out on our vehicle export page, which is the page to read when the car is leaving Europe.
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How much is the malus on a supercar imported into France?
It turns on two things: the car's CO2 figure and its year of first registration. On a recent supercar the CO2 tax reaches the top of the scale for that year, €80,000 for 2026 or €30,000 for 2021, and the age-based reduction is then applied. The weight tax usually adds nothing, because article L. 421-74 of the CIBS cuts it until the two taxes together fit under that same cap. A supercar first registered abroad in 2021 therefore lands near €17,100 once the 43% reduction for its age is applied, rather than the €80,000 a current-year calculator returns. We give you the exact amount with the quote, calculated on the scale for the year of first registration.
Is the French malus capped at a percentage of the car's price?
Not since 1 January 2024. The article that capped it at 50% of the purchase price, L. 421-61 of the CIBS, was repealed by the loi de finances pour 2024 (loi n° 2023-1322 of 29 December 2023). The only cap still standing is the one on the two taxes combined, in article L. 421-74: the CO2 tax and the weight tax together cannot exceed the highest rate of the applicable scale, after the age-based reduction. On a cheap car with high emissions the malus can now exceed what the car cost.
Does an older supercar escape the malus?
Completely if it was first registered before 1 January 2015: both taxes are then nil, whatever the car emits and whatever it weighs (articles L. 421-60 and L. 421-73 of the CIBS). Between 2015 and today it falls under the scale for its own year, with the age-based reduction on top, which produces a very different figure from the current scale. This is why cars from the 2011 to 2014 window are so often the sensible import, and why a 2015 registration and a 2014 registration are not remotely the same purchase.
Do you inspect the car yourselves before buying it?
Yes, on site and before any money moves, which is the last moment at which walking away costs nothing. On a car of this value the inspection covers the consistency of the paperwork and the car's legal position in its own country, not only its mechanical condition: an outstanding finance agreement or a charge registered abroad is invisible from a listing and invisible in the French register. You receive photographs, video and a written report, and you may appoint your own expert alongside us, at your expense.
Do I pay the malus again when I sell the car on?
No. Both taxes are triggered by the issue of the registration certificate for the car's first registration in France as a passenger vehicle. Once they have been paid, they are not charged again when the car changes hands, and whoever buys it from you pays nothing further on that account. That is also why an identical car already registered in France and one still abroad are not comparable on price alone.
Can I just import the supercar myself?
Yes. Two parts of it are hard to do alone. The first is reading the register in the seller's country to find out whether a charge or an unsettled finance agreement follows the car; a private buyer has no standing to make that enquiry in most countries. The second is getting the malus calculated on the scale for the year of first registration rather than the current one, which is where online calculators cost people either a sale they should have made or several thousand euros they should not have paid. There is also the guarantee: buy the car yourself and you buy from a foreign seller, so the two-year legal guarantee is enforceable abroad rather than in France.
Why does the car have to travel in an enclosed transporter?
Because an open transporter exposes the car to stone chips for the whole journey, and a claim for chip damage is painful to pursue and rarely paid in full. An enclosed transporter, wheel straps rather than chassis straps, a declared value that matches the real value and specific cover for the journey cost a fraction of a single repaint on a car of this kind. We keep open transporters for ordinary stock, never for a car in this bracket.
What is a valeur agréée policy, and do I need one?
A valeur agréée is a value fixed contractually with the insurer when the policy is taken out, so that a total loss is settled at that agreed figure. Without one, the settlement rests on an expert's valuation made at the time of the claim, which on a rare model seldom reflects what the car is worth to you. French insurers generally ask for their agreement in advance, with photographs and sometimes a condition about where the car is kept, so the policy is arranged before delivery rather than after: a car that arrives without suitable cover stays in our secure storage until it has it.
How much do you take on order?
40% on order, the balance on delivery. The deposit is what allows us to buy the car and book the transport, and it is committed only once the car has been inspected on site and you have accepted the complete price with the tax figure calculated on the scale for its year. If the inspection turns up something that was not in the listing, we do not buy, and nothing has been committed.
I want the car shipped outside the EU rather than registered in France. Can you do that?
Yes. A car that leaves the European Union is never registered in France, so no malus and no French registration taxes arise. A delivery outside the European Union is exempt from French VAT under article 262, I of the CGI, against proof of export; the invoicing regime is confirmed case by case before you commit, because the treatment depends on who buys, where the car goes and how it leaves. Our vehicle export page sets out the routes, the timings and the customs paperwork.
Have a vehicle in mind?
Send us the listing. We come back with the complete price and the full tax calculation within one working day.
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