Importing a Porsche, Ferrari or supercar from Hong Kong

Hong Kong has more than its share of special cars. Porsches of every generation, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and McLarens, many of them low mileage, garaged and serviced at the dealer. When one of them is heading to the UK, the owner’s first question is rarely about paperwork. It’s about whether the car will arrive exactly as it left.

That’s a fair worry, and it’s the right place to start. The route is the same as for any Hong Kong car, but there are a few choices along the way that matter more when the car is worth a lot. This guide goes through them in order.

Collection and the container

We collect from your address in Hong Kong and take the car to the container-loading warehouse.

Most cars travel in a shared container with other cars. For a high-value car, a dedicated 20ft container is usually the better choice. The car travels on its own, with nothing else loaded around it, and the container is sealed from loading in Hong Kong to unloading in the UK. Our guide to shared or dedicated containers explains how cars are loaded and secured.

We arrange marine insurance for the voyage, covering total loss or significant damage. Tell us what the car is worth when you get a quote, so we can talk through the cover properly.

The car is typically 3 to 6 weeks at sea.

Unloading at our own facility

This is where we differ from most importers. The container doesn’t sit at a port warehouse waiting to be emptied. It comes to our private facility at Castle Donington, where our own team unloads it.

We’re not driven by speed of unloading like many port warehouses. We take as much time and care as the car needs to get it out safely, which matters a great deal with a low front splitter and very little ground clearance.

The tax at stake

On a high-value car, the tax is often the biggest number in the whole import, so it’s worth understanding before anything ships.

Without relief, a car from Hong Kong pays 10% import duty on its value, then 20% VAT on the value plus shipping plus the duty. As an example, using our calculator’s method:

	Amount
Car’s value	£120,000
Shipping and insurance	£3,000
Import duty at 10%	£12,000
VAT at 20% on £135,000	£27,000
Tax to pay	£39,000

If you’re moving your main home to the UK, Transfer of Residence relief can remove both duty and VAT. The conditions are the same as for any car: you’ve lived outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months, you’ve had the car for at least 6 months, it’s for private use, and you apply for ToR1, and get it approved, before the car ships. You can’t sell, lend or hire out the car for 12 months after the move. On a car like this, that relief is worth checking carefully. Our ToR checker runs through it in a couple of minutes, and the duty and VAT calculator will work out your own figures.

If the car is over thirty years old and in original condition, it may come in with no duty and 5% VAT instead. Our guide to classic cars from Hong Kong covers that, and plenty of older 911s fall into it.

Testing and compliance

A Hong Kong car is already right-hand drive and built for driving on the left, so the usual jobs are the same on a supercar as on anything else: the speedometer needs to read in mph, and the car needs a correct rear fog light. On many modern cars the display can be switched to mph; on others the instrument cluster needs work. We’ll tell you which applies to yours.

Cars under ten years old take an IVA test. We run the first privately owned IVA testing centre for passenger vehicles in the UK, so your car is prepared in our own workshop and tested on our own lane. It never leaves the site between unloading and registration.

The one thing we’d ask is that you tell us about modifications up front. Aftermarket exhausts, lowered suspension, wider wheels and carbon aero parts are common on cars like these, and some of them affect the test. It’s far better to know before the car lands than to find out on the lane. Our guide to the IVA test explains what’s checked.

Cars ten years old and over take an MOT instead, which we also arrange.

Registration, storage and delivery

Once the car has passed, we register it through our dealer-level DVLA account, which typically takes around 10 working days. It then gets a UK registration number and plates.

From there, you can collect it from us, or we can deliver it in an enclosed transporter to any UK address. If you’re not ready for it yet, we can keep it in indoor storage, charged and on the key. You can follow every stage in the customer portal.

Before the car leaves Hong Kong

A little preparation pays off with a car like this.

• Gather the service history, especially dealer records from Hong Kong
• Pack every key, including spares
• Note any modifications so we can plan the test
• Keep the original Vehicle Registration Document with you, not in the car
• Cancel the Hong Kong registration with TD184 within 15 days of shipping

The service history matters more than people expect. A Hong Kong car with a full dealer record is far easier to insure, own and sell in the UK than one with gaps. And our guide to window tint, toll tags and other Hong Kong extras covers the small jobs to clear before you go, from front window film to the toll tag.

Electric performance cars

A Porsche Taycan or another high-performance EV follows the same route, with a few extra shipping declarations for the battery, which we handle. Our guide to Tesla and electric cars from Hong Kong covers the EV-specific points.

Next steps

Get a quote with the make, model, year and anything special about the car. Tell us whether you’d like a dedicated container and enclosed delivery, and we’ll build the price around it. We’d be more than happy to talk it through should you need it.