Import duty on electric vehicles in Jamaica

An electric vehicle is the cheapest thing on the road to clear through Jamaica Customs, and by a wide margin. A petrol car with a 1.5 litre engine pays an aggregate of 58.9% of its CIF value in duties and taxes. A hybrid pays 44.5%. An electric car that is three years or less since manufacture pays 10.5%. This guide explains where that number comes from, what changes when the vehicle is older, and the one situation where an electric car ends up paying more than it should.

Three charges, two of them zero

Every vehicle is assessed in the same order: import duty on CIF, special consumption tax on CIF plus duty, GCT on the total of all three, then the 0.5% environmental levy and the flat customs administrative fee. For an electric vehicle two of those percentage lines are zero.

• Import duty is 10% for a vehicle three years or less since manufacture, and 30% for one older than that. The reduction from 30% to 10% took effect on 14 July 2022, announced by the Jamaica Information Service.
• SCT is not charged on electric vehicles.
• GCT is not charged either. Jamaica Customs states that electric motor vehicles are exempt, cleared under Additional National Code V14.

With SCT and GCT both at zero there is nothing to compound. The aggregate is simply the duty plus the levy: 10.5% for a young vehicle and 30.5% for an older one. Compare that with the way a petrol car’s three rates stack into a much larger figure, which the compounding guide walks through.

The three-year line

The concession is counted in months since manufacture, thirty-six of them, not in model years. A vehicle built in the second half of 2023 is inside the line in the first half of 2026 and outside it in the second. Customs assesses on the age at importation, so what matters is the month of manufacture on the export certificate and the date the entry is lodged, not the date you paid the exporter. If a listing is close to the line, shipping delays can move it across, and the duty rate triples when that happens. Price it both ways before you commit.

A US$20,000 electric car, both sides of the line

The two tables below price the same used electric car at US$20,000 CIF to Kingston, converted at today’s Bank of Jamaica selling rate of J$158.88 per US$1. The first is assessed as three years or less since manufacture, the second as older.

The GCT and SCT lines read zero in both. The whole difference between them is the duty line, and because nothing compounds on top of it, the difference is exactly twenty points of CIF. On a young vehicle the flat customs fee is a visible share of what you pay; on an old one the duty dominates again.

Why the dealer rate sheet does not show this

The Jamaica Customs dealer rate sheet this site prices from was revised on 1 April 2020. The electric duty reduction came in July 2022, and Customs has not republished the dealer sheet since. As of September 2026 the only 2025 sheet is the one for individual importers. So the electric rows on the rate table are sourced separately, and it is worth knowing where each piece comes from.

• The 30% to 10% reduction for vehicles three years or less since manufacture is from the July 2022 Jamaica Information Service announcement.
• The GCT exemption under Additional National Code V14 is stated in Jamaica Customs’ own published FAQ.
• The 2025 individual rate sheet prints both electric bands with SCT and GCT at zero and aggregates of 11% and 31%, which is what the table reproduces once the levy is included.
• That the concession applies to dealer imports, not only to individuals, is settled by Customs’ own May 2025 dealer tariff classification. It carries dealer-specific codes split on the three-year rule: 8703.8000.30 for cars, 8704.6090.30 and .31 for pickups, and 8704.6090.32 and .33 for panel vans.

If a broker tells you a dealer import cannot use the electric rates, those tariff codes are the document to point at.

Electric motorcycles

The same age split applies to motorcycles, on lower rates. An electric motorcycle three years or less since manufacture pays 10% import duty, and one over three years pays 20%. Neither pays SCT or GCT, so the aggregates are 10.5% and 20.5%. The calculator handles both; choose Motorcycle, then Electric, and set the age band.

The trap: the public sector concession

Travelling officers in the public service can apply for the Ministry of Finance’s 20% duty concession, which replaces the vehicle’s own duty rate with a flat 20% on the first US$35,000 of CIF and remits SCT. On a petrol car that is a real saving. On an electric car three years or less since manufacture it is worse than useless: the flat 20% replaces the 10% the band already carries, and there is no SCT to remit. GCT is exempt either way. An officer who applies the concession to a young EV pays double the duty they would have paid without it. On an EV over three years old the concession does help, because 20% beats 30%.

The calculator prices both ways when you tick the concession box, and says which is cheaper. The concession guide covers the rest of the terms.

Before you buy

• Find the month and year of manufacture on the export certificate, and count thirty-six months forward. That is the date the duty rate changes.
• Check the vehicle is inside the Trade Board’s six-year age limit for cars. The electric concession does not change that.
• Confirm the listing describes a battery electric vehicle, not a plug-in hybrid. A plug-in hybrid is assessed on the hybrid band.
• If you hold the public sector concession, do not use it on a young EV.

Run the listing through the calculator with Electric selected to see the full assessment in Jamaican dollars.