The Ultimate Guide to Importing and Shipping Cars from China to the Netherlands

The Netherlands is one of the most interesting destinations in Europe for a Chinese car. It has the continent’s largest port at Rotterdam, a buyer base that has already accepted electric driving, and a tax system that rewards zero-emission vehicles more generously than almost any other EU member state. It also has one of the most procedural import regimes you will meet anywhere — a BPM declaration, an RDW inspection and a customs file that all have to line up before the car can legally touch a Dutch road.

Over the past 15 years of moving vehicles out of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Ningbo, we have seen this lane change faster than almost any other. The tariff picture for Chinese electric cars is no longer a footnote, and the gap between a clean import and an expensive one is almost always paperwork — not the sailing.

This guide gives you the numbers and the sequence we actually use with clients, from the customs value to the moment the yellow plates go on.

Last updated: September 2026. EU duty rates, countervailing measures and ocean freight on this lane change frequently. Verify the current position before you commit capital, and treat every figure here as a planning range rather than a quote.

Related Article: Shipping From China To Netherlands

Quick Answer: Importing Cars from China to the Netherlands in 2026

• What does it cost to bring the car in? Expect 10% EU import duty on the customs value (CIF), plus 21% Dutch import VAT. Battery electric vehicles from China may also attract a countervailing duty of 7.8%–35.3%, depending on the manufacturer.
• What is BPM? A one-off Dutch registration tax. In 2026 a zero-emission car pays a flat €687 regardless of price; petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid cars pay according to CO2 emissions.
• How do I ship it? RoRo (Roll-on/Roll-off) runs roughly $900–$1,800 per vehicle. Container shipping is one car in a 20ft or two in a 40ft, typically $1,500–$2,200 per car equivalent.
• How long does it take? Ocean transit to Rotterdam is 28–36 days, RoRo 30–45 days, and rail freight on the China–Europe express route 15–20 days. Add 5–10 working days for customs clearance, BPM and RDW registration.
• Can I register it? Yes — but for vehicles without EU whole-vehicle type approval, the RDW must approve each car individually at its Lelystad test centre.

Why Import a Car from China to the Netherlands

Price and model choice

Chinese manufacturers now build the full spectrum — compact hatchbacks, family SUVs, executive sedans and performance EVs — and the factory price for an equivalent specification is often materially lower than for a European, Japanese or Korean badge. For a Dutch dealer or fleet buyer, that arbitrage is the whole business case, and it is why Chinese brands have moved so quickly into the Dutch market.

Electric vehicles are where the Dutch case is strongest

Three Dutch rules line up in favour of zero-emission imports in 2026:

• BPM of €687. An electric car pays the same fixed BPM whether it costs €25,000 or €80,000. On a comparable petrol car the CO2-based BPM can run into thousands of euros.
• 30% MRB discount. Zero-emission cars pay 70% of the standard motorrijtuigenbelasting (road tax) rate. The discount steps down towards 2030, so the benefit is front-loaded.
• 18% bijtelling to €30,000. If the car is a company vehicle used privately, the addition to taxable income is 18% on the first €30,000 of list price, against 22% for a combustion car.

Taken together, those three rules can absorb a meaningful part of the freight and duty bill — which is precisely why Dutch importers concentrate on EVs rather than petrol models. Chinese manufacturers also build left-hand drive as standard, matching Dutch roads with no conversion cost.

What It Actually Costs: Duty, VAT and BPM

Four charges sit between the factory invoice and a Dutch registration: import duty, any countervailing duty, VAT, and BPM. Getting the order and the base right matters, because a mistake in the declared value compounds through all of them.

1. EU import duty — 10% of the customs value

The customs value is not just the invoice price. It is the CIF value: the cost of the goods plus freight and insurance to the EU border. For passenger cars under 30 years old the standard duty rate is 10%. Motorcycles are lower, at 6%, while vans and pickups can reach 22%. China has no free trade agreement with the EU, so there is no preferential rate to claim on this lane.

2. Countervailing duty on Chinese battery electric vehicles

Since October 2024, the EU has applied definitive countervailing duties on new battery electric vehicles from China, ranging from 7.8% to 35.3% on top of the standard 10% tariff. The rate is set per exporter — BYD sits at the lower end, SAIC at the ceiling — so the same body style can carry a very different tax bill depending on who built it.

Since early 2026 there is an alternative. The European Commission published guidance on price undertakings in January 2026 and accepted the first one in February 2026: an exporter can commit to a minimum import price, a volume ceiling and defined EU investment milestones, and in exchange the countervailing duty is not collected. That route is approved model by model, not brand by brand, so it is worth confirming the status of your exact model before you build a landed-cost model.

What this means for your business: on a Chinese EV, duty policy — not freight — is the largest single line in your landed cost. A 17% countervailing duty on a €21,000 CIF car is €3,600, which is more than the ocean freight and the insurance combined.

3. Dutch import VAT — 21%

VAT is charged at 21% on the customs value plus the duties, not on the invoice price alone. Two points importers regularly ask about:

• The 6-month / 6,000 km test that decides whether a car counts as “new” for VAT applies to vehicles acquired from another EU country. A car arriving directly from China is an import, so Dutch import VAT applies regardless of its age or mileage.
• If you are a VAT-registered business importing for resale or business use, that import VAT is normally recoverable as input tax. For a dealer or a fleet operator this changes the economics completely; for a private individual it does not.

4. BPM — the Dutch registration tax

BPM (Belasting van Personenauto’s en Motorrijwielen) is a one-off tax on first registration in the Netherlands, and it must be paid before the car gets Dutch plates.

• Zero-emission cars: a flat €687 in 2026. No CO2 component at all.
• Petrol and hybrid cars: calculated from the CO2 figure the RDW records, using the annual BPM table. A used compact petrol car typically lands in the low hundreds up to about €1,000; a mid-size petrol SUV is usually higher.
• Diesel cars: the CO2-based amount plus a diesel surcharge of €114.83 per gram of CO2 above 69 g/km, which is why older diesels are rarely worth importing.
• Used imports: the taxable amount is reduced by an age-based depreciation table, and there are three legitimate valuation routes — the flat table, a recognised price list, or an approved valuation report. The declaration may use whichever produces the lowest correct figure, and on a four-year-old car the difference between routes can be several hundred euros.

Cars over 30 years old sit in a category of their own: 0% import duty, a reduced 9% VAT rate, and no BPM at all. That is why classic-car importers treat this lane differently from dealers.

A worked example

The table below models a €20,000 FOB Chinese electric car shipped in a 40ft container shared by two vehicles. It is illustrative only — model, exporter rate and route all move the numbers.

Line item	Basis	Amount (EUR)
Vehicle price (FOB)	Factory invoice	€20,000
Ocean freight (share of a 40ft, 2 cars)	Spot rate	€1,100
Marine cargo insurance	~0.5% of value	€100
Customs value (CIF)	Cost + insurance + freight	€21,200
EU import duty	10% of CIF	€2,120
Countervailing duty (BEVs from China)	17.0% of CIF	€3,604
Dutch import VAT	21% of (CIF + duties)	€5,654
BPM	Fixed amount, zero-emission	€687
RDW inspection, plates and registration	Fixed fees	€130–€200
Broker, port handling and inland delivery	Quote-dependent	€700–€1,200
Estimated landed cost		≈ €34,400

Two observations clients find useful. First, the car lands at roughly 72% above the factory price, and the tax lines — not the freight — are almost all of the difference. Second, if your model is exempt from the countervailing duty through an accepted undertaking, or is not a battery electric vehicle at all, the same car lands at around €30,000 instead. That €4,400 swing is decided by the specification you order, before a single container is booked.

Shipping Methods: RoRo, Container or Rail

RoRo (Roll-on/Roll-off)

The car is driven onto a dedicated vehicle carrier at the Chinese port and driven off in Europe. It is the cheapest method per unit for standard, running vehicles, and it is how dealership volumes traditionally move. The trade-offs: the car is exposed to weather and salt air, personal belongings are prohibited inside it, and carriers impose strict fuel and battery rules.

One practical point on this lane: China–North Europe RoRo capacity is thinner than China–US, and most sailings discharge at Zeebrugge or Antwerp rather than in the Netherlands, with an inland truck leg added. Always price the door-to-door figure, not the ocean freight alone.

Container shipping

The car is loaded into a sealed 20ft or 40ft container — one car in a 20ft, two in a 40ft, and up to three or four compact units in a 40ft High Cube. This is the default choice for luxury cars, non-running vehicles, and electric vehicles, and it is the only method that lets spare parts or a set of wheels travel with the car.

Rail freight (China–Europe express)

Containerised vehicles can also move overland on the China–Europe rail network, arriving through hubs such as Duisburg and Tilburg. Transit is 15–20 days, which sits between sea and air, and the cost per car is usually above ocean freight but well below air. It is a good fit for higher-value units when a six-week sailing is too slow.

Feature	RoRo	Container (20ft / 40ft)	Rail
Best for	Dealership volumes, running vehicles	Luxury, classic and electric vehicles	Higher-value units, time-sensitive
Typical cost per car	€800–€1,600	€1,500–€2,200	Above sea, below air
Protection	Parked and lashed on deck, weather-exposed	Fully sealed, weatherproof	Fully sealed
Personal items / spare parts	Not permitted	Allowed inside the container	Allowed
Electric vehicles	Restricted by many carriers	Accepted	Accepted
China → Netherlands transit	30–45 days	28–36 days	15–20 days

A note on electric vehicles. Battery cars are the hardest cargo to place on RoRo because of thermal-runaway risk. Many carriers require a UN38.3 battery test summary and a declaration of the battery’s state of charge, and some refuse used EVs outright. Container shipping removes that obstacle and lets you send a charging cable or wallbox in the same box.

Routes and Transit Times

Vehicles load mainly at Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen (Yantian), Guangzhou, Qingdao and Tianjin. Containers discharge at Rotterdam — Europe’s largest port and the natural gateway for Dutch delivery — with Amsterdam as a secondary option. RoRo cargo typically discharges at Zeebrugge or Antwerp and is trucked into the Netherlands.

Route	Mode	Transit	Notes
Shanghai / Ningbo → Rotterdam	Container	30–36 days	Most frequent sailings and the most competitive rates
Shenzhen (Yantian) → Rotterdam	Container	28–33 days	Best fit for Pearl River Delta factories
Guangzhou → Rotterdam	Container	29–39 days	Good coverage for southern China assembly plants
China → Zeebrugge / Antwerp	RoRo	30–45 days	Fewer sailings; add the inland leg to the Netherlands
Chengdu / Xi’an → Tilburg / Duisburg	Rail	15–20 days	Sits between sea and air on cost
China → Amsterdam (Schiphol)	Air	3–7 days	Chartered or consolidated cargo aircraft only; rarely economic

Add 5–10 working days for customs clearance, the RDW inspection and the BPM declaration before the car is road-legal. If your vehicle needs individual approval at Lelystad, budget more. Door-to-door planning of 40–55 days from factory gate to Dutch plates is realistic when the documentation is clean.

The Import Process, Step by Step

1. Confirm the model’s EU status before you pay a deposit. Establish whether the car carries an EU whole-vehicle type approval and whether the manufacturer can issue a Certificaat van Overeenstemming (CvO / CoC). This single check decides whether you face a document check or a full individual approval at the RDW test centre in Lelystad.
2. Verify the supplier and the terms. Confirm the exact legal entity on the contract and invoice, and settle the Incoterms 2020 term. FOB gives you control of the freight; DDP shifts customs handling to your forwarder but hides the duty breakdown, which is the opposite of what you want on a lane this tax-heavy.
3. Book space. Reserve RoRo or container slots early — allow two months of lead time in the July–October peak and around Chinese New Year.
4. Prepare export documents in China — commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin and the Bill of Lading (B/L).
5. Complete Chinese export clearance, including any export licence that applies to vehicles.
6. Sail, with tracking. Pre-alert the destination broker so the Dutch entry can be prepared before arrival.
7. File the customs entry in the Netherlands. An import declaration requires an EORI number; businesses need their own, while private importers normally work through their forwarder’s customs broker. Duty and import VAT are assessed on the CIF value.
8. Run the RDW process. Book the inspection, complete the APK where required, and file the BPM declaration with the Belastingdienst. The original foreign registration document is surrendered to the RDW at this point — make a copy beforehand.
9. Register, plate and insure. After BPM is paid the car is titled to you, plates are issued, and you need at least third-party insurance before driving it. MRB is billed automatically thereafter.

Compliance: Type Approval, CoC and the RDW Inspection

This is the step that stops first-time importers, and it is worth understanding before you buy.

If the model has European type approval, the manufacturer or importer can supply a Certificate of Conformity. In that case the RDW only needs to identify the vehicle and check the documents at a normal inspection station — fast and inexpensive.

If it does not, every car is approved individually at the RDW test centre in Lelystad, one vehicle at a time. You pay for the test whether it passes or fails, and the list of common rejection points is very specific: missing rear fog lights and side indicators, mirrors that are too flat for European rules, headlight patterns, tyres without European approval, and horns that are too quiet. Any parts fitted to fix those failures must themselves carry European type approval.

Two further points our clients ask about regularly. Chinese domestic-market cars often ship with GB/T charging connectors rather than the European CCS2 / Type 2 standard, and with Chinese-language infotainment and navigation — export-specification builds avoid a costly retrofit. And if you are moving to the Netherlands from outside the EU, duty and import VAT can be waived under the household-goods relief, which requires at least 12 months of prior residence outside the EU and at least six months of ownership of the car; BPM and RDW registration still apply.

Documents Checklist

Working with a customs broker, expect to assemble:

• Bill of Lading (B/L) — the transport document and receipt for the goods
• Commercial invoice and packing list
• Certificate of Origin
• Certificaat van Overeenstemming (CoC) where the model has EU type approval
• Foreign registration document or vehicle title proving ownership and first registration date
• Purchase invoice and, where relevant, a valuation report supporting the BPM declaration
• UN38.3 battery test summary and state-of-charge declaration for electric vehicles
• EORI number for the importer of record
• Cargo insurance certificate

Six Mistakes That Cost Importers Money

1. Buying before checking the CoC. A car without European type approval is not unimportable — but the Lelystad test adds cost, time and risk that should be priced in from day one.
2. Ordering a domestic-market specification. GB/T charging, Chinese-language software and non-European lighting are expensive to put right after arrival.
3. Assuming the countervailing duty does not apply. It is the largest single tax line on many Chinese EVs, and it varies by exporter and model. Confirm before you commit.
4. Budgeting on the invoice price. Duty, VAT and BPM all cascade from the CIF customs value. A change in freight changes your tax bill, not just your shipping cost.
5. Forgetting BPM until the car is on the quay. No BPM, no kenteken — and port storage starts running immediately.
6. Skipping cargo insurance. A single damaged or written-off unit can erase the margin on an entire container, and RoRo cargo is exposed at both ends of the voyage.

Why Importers Work With Dantful

Dantful International Logistics has been moving cargo out of China since 2008, from our base in Shenzhen, under China’s Class-A freight forwarding licence and Ministry of Transport NVOCC registration, as an FMC member and Jctrans partner. Our network of agents covers 200 countries, and our team includes 50 operations specialists and more than 50 customer service staff.

For vehicle imports into the Netherlands, we handle the full chain: factory pickup in China, export clearance, ocean freight by RoRo or container, rail freight on the China–Europe express route, marine cargo insurance, customs clearance in Rotterdam, and final door-to-door delivery to your address. Because we hold direct contracts with carriers, we can secure RoRo and container space when the market tightens, and our clients receive daily status updates with photos at each handover point.

Request a free landed-cost calculation for your vehicle — including duty, VAT, BPM and inland delivery — before you place your factory order.

FAQs

How much does it cost to ship a car from China to the Netherlands?

RoRo runs roughly $900–$1,800 per vehicle. Container shipping costs about $1,500–$2,200 per car equivalent, typically one car in a 20ft or two in a 40ft. Rates on this lane move sharply with capacity, so we quote with a short validity window.

How long does shipping from China to the Netherlands take?

Ocean transit to Rotterdam is 28–36 days by container and 30–45 days by RoRo. Rail freight on the China–Europe express route takes 15–20 days, and air cargo 3–7 days. Add 5–10 working days for customs clearance, the RDW inspection and the BPM declaration.

Do I have to pay import duty and VAT?

Yes. Passenger cars under 30 years old attract 10% import duty on the CIF value plus 21% Dutch import VAT on the customs value plus duty. Battery electric vehicles from China may also face a countervailing duty of 7.8%–35.3%, unless the exporter holds an accepted price undertaking for that model. Cars over 30 years old are exempt from duty and pay a reduced 9% VAT.

What is BPM and how much will it be?

BPM is the one-off Dutch registration tax, payable before the car can be registered. A zero-emission car pays a flat €687 in 2026 regardless of price. Petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid cars pay according to their CO2 emissions, reduced by an age-based depreciation table.

Do I need European type approval to register a Chinese car in the Netherlands?

Only if you want to avoid the individual approval route. Cars with EU whole-vehicle type approval and a Certificate of Conformity need only identification and a document check at an RDW station. Without it, the RDW must test and approve the vehicle individually at its Lelystad test centre — one car at a time, and you pay for the test whether it passes or not.

Can I import a car that is more than 30 years old?

Yes, and the tax treatment is much lighter: 0% import duty, a reduced 9% VAT rate and no BPM. It is a genuinely separate workflow from a new-car import, so confirm the customs classification of the specific vehicle before shipping.

Which port will my car arrive at?

Containers discharge at Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, with Amsterdam as an alternative. RoRo sailings to North Europe usually discharge at Zeebrugge or Antwerp, after which the car is trucked into the Netherlands — so compare door-to-door costs, not ocean freight alone.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. EU duty rates, countervailing measures and Dutch BPM rules change frequently — confirm the current position for your specific model and situation with a licensed customs broker or tax adviser before importing.