Cyprus Car Market: Registrations, Costs and Rules (2026)

Cyprus Car Market: Registrations, Costs and Rules (2026)

This guide sets out what official statistics and named press reports say about the Cyprus car market as of 29 October 2026. It covers how many vehicles were registered in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and in the first nine months of 2026, how registrations divide between new and used cars and between petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric, how large the fleet is, and what owners pay and must do under the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Law. The registration figures come from the monthly press releases of the Statistical Service of the Republic of Cyprus (CYSTAT), which take their data from the Road Transport Department (RTD). The latest release, dated 9 October 2026, covers September 2026; the release for October 2026 had not been issued on 29 October.

The sections follow the questions people ask in practice: the size and mix of the Cyprus car market, the fleet and the number of cars per 1,000 inhabitants, the costs of owning a car (registration fee, road tax by CO2 band, VAT and import duty), the inspection and insurance rules, the status of the electric-vehicle grants, and the rules for people who move to the island (driving licences, foreign-plated cars, left-hand traffic). Worked examples show the arithmetic and are labelled as illustrations, not quotes. Prices and rules are given in euros and carry the date of the source. Brand rankings are cited from press reports that name CYSTAT as their origin, because the CYSTAT press release itself does not list brands. Property-side context for the same island is in our Cyprus real estate market statistics post and on the Southern Cyprus country page.

Cyprus car market data: sources and definitions

The principal source is CYSTAT’s report “Registration of Motor Vehicles”, which according to its methodological note has been published monthly since 1982. The note states that the data are collected monthly, that they cover newly registered motor vehicles as recorded by the Department of Road Transport, and that registrations are presented by category, make, energy type, new or used, engine capacity, country of manufacture and other characteristics held by the Motor Vehicles Registration and Licensing Authority. Predefined Excel tables stop at December 2022; figures from January 2023 are published in the CYSTAT-DB online database (CYSTAT services and transport statistics). The monthly press releases are PDF documents of three pages: a summary, one table and the methodological note.

A registration is not the same as a vehicle on the road. The press release counts vehicles that entered the register in the period, whether they were new or used when registered. The fleet is a separate series: CYSTAT-DB also publishes annual tables of vehicles on the register by category and energy type, split into licensed, unlicensed and immobilised vehicles. The two series answer different questions, and the sections below keep them apart. Figures for a period can be restated in later releases; for example, the new-vehicle total for January to August 2026 (14,641) plus the September figure (1,776) equals the January to September total of 16,417 shown in the October release.

Energy types in the CYSTAT-DB tables are petrol, diesel, electric, hybrid and other. Hybrid is a single category in those tables, so plug-in hybrids are not shown separately. The shares quoted in the press releases refer to passenger cars: the wording is the share of petrol-powered passenger cars “to the total of this category of vehicles”. The release of 9 January 2024 quoted shares for all motor vehicles instead (55.0% petrol, 18.0% diesel, 2.9% electric and 24.1% hybrid for 2023), which is why the fuel-share tables below start from the passenger-car basis used in the 2024, 2025 and 2026 releases. International comparisons in this guide use Eurostat, and legal and fee rules use the consolidated text of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Law on CyLaw, the Customs and Excise Department pages and the gov.cy portal.

Annual registrations in the Cyprus car market, 2022 to 2025

CYSTAT’s January releases give full-year totals. Registrations of all road motor vehicles rose from 33,795 in 2022 to 45,494 in 2023 (up 34.6%), to 49,616 in 2024 (up 9.1%) and to 52,508 in 2025 (up 5.8%). Passenger cars made up most of the total: 40,778 of the 52,508 registrations in 2025, or 77.7%. The same table shows what the headline hides: new registrations were almost flat between 2023 and 2025 (20,506, 21,904 and 21,710), while used registrations climbed from 24,988 to 27,712 and then 30,798.

Source for the table: CYSTAT-DB annual registration table (updated 12 January 2026) and the CYSTAT releases of 9 January 2024, 10 January 2025 and 12 January 2026. The 2022 new share is calculated here as 11,577 divided by 26,598. Over 2022 to 2025 used registrations of all vehicles rose by 77.5% (17,349 to 30,798) while new registrations rose by 32.0% (16,446 to 21,710); for passenger cars the used count grew by 19.0% between 2023 and 2025 (21,971 to 26,145) and the new count was unchanged within 4 cars (14,637 and 14,633).

Other categories moved differently. Rental cars, which are counted inside passenger cars, were registered at 5,577 in 2023, 3,904 in 2024 (down 30.0%) and 5,169 in 2025 (up 32.4%). Goods conveyance vehicles rose from 4,374 in 2023 to 5,811 in 2024 and 6,208 in 2025. Motor coaches and buses fell from 329 in 2023 to 133 in 2024 and were 181 in 2025. Mopeds under 50cc fell from 690 in 2024 to 213 in 2025, while mechanised cycles over 50cc rose from 3,903 to 4,467. CYSTAT also reports the countries of manufacture of the vehicles registered in a year: Japan accounted for 42.9% in 2023, 40.6% in 2024 and 44.1% in 2025; Germany for 13.9%, 13.9% and 13.0%; and the other places in the top five went to France, the United Kingdom and South Korea in varying order. For tourism volumes that drive part of the rental-fleet cycle, see the Cyprus tourism trends post.

The Cyprus car market in 2026: month by month

CYSTAT issued nine monthly releases for 2026 between 6 February and 9 October. The table below lists the monthly totals as printed in each release. “New” and “used” in the last two columns cover all road motor vehicles, not only cars, and add up to the monthly total.

Compared with the same months of 2025, total registrations were higher in eight of the nine months: January +6.7%, February +24.3%, March +8.9%, April +22.1%, May +6.0%, June +13.8%, July +3.3% and August +8.9%, while September was 3.9% lower (5,326 against 5,544). New-vehicle registrations were lower than a year earlier in January (−9.5%), February (−6.5%), March (−13.3%), May (−2.6%), June (−1.5%), July (−3.4%) and September (−16.7%), and higher in April (+13.4%) and August (+1.4%). Used registrations were higher than a year earlier in all nine months, by between 4.0% (September) and 53.9% (February).

For the first nine months CYSTAT reports 43,890 registrations, 9.1% above the 40,212 of January to September 2025. Used registrations were 27,473 (up 19.9% from 22,916) and new registrations 16,417 (down 5.1% from 17,296). Passenger cars reached 34,156 against 31,325 (up 9.0%); of these 10,521 (30.8%) were new and 23,635 (69.2%) were used. Rental cars fell 17.1%, from 4,559 to 3,780. Goods vehicles rose 10.4% to 5,046 (light goods vehicles 3,970, heavy goods vehicles 621, road tractors 195, rental goods vehicles 260). Motor coaches and buses rose from 132 to 196, mechanised cycles over 50cc by 8.0% to 3,802, and mopeds under 50cc fell from 170 to 109.

Year-to-date figures at each release

Each release also reports the cumulative position from January. Reading the cumulative figures in sequence shows how the new-car share of passenger-car registrations moved during the year, from 39.0% in January alone to 30.8% by September.

For comparison with any source that quotes quarterly numbers, CYSTAT’s release of 9 April 2026 puts January to March at 13,837 registrations (up 12.9% from 12,256), March alone at 4,817 (up 8.9% from 4,422), and passenger cars in the quarter at 10,627, of which 3,615 were new. Rental cars in the quarter fell from 1,027 to 822. The difference between “all registrations” and “new registrations” matters in these comparisons, because new-vehicle registrations fell 9.9% in the quarter (6,108 to 5,501) while the all-vehicle total rose.

Fuel types in the Cyprus car market

The fuel shares below are CYSTAT’s shares of passenger-car registrations in the period. Petrol fell from 57.5% in 2023 to 42.0% in 2025 and 34.8% in January to September 2026. Hybrids rose from 29.6% to 44.3% and then 53.0%. Diesel stayed between 8.0% and 10.3%, and electric cars were between 2.7% and 4.7% of registrations, with a lower 4.2% in the first nine months of 2026 than the 4.7% of the same period of 2025.

The cumulative series for 2026 shows the same direction in every release. The hybrid share was 48.8% in January and passed 50% in the first-quarter figure (50.3%), then rose to 50.8% by April, 51.3% by May, 51.7% by June, 51.9% by July, 52.4% by August and 53.0% by September. Petrol stayed in a band of 34.8% to 36.2% throughout, and electric cars fell from 6.9% in January to 4.2% in the nine-month figure.

In absolute numbers the CYSTAT-DB energy-type table (all vehicle categories, updated 6 May 2026) shows registrations of electric vehicles of 308 in 2021, 739 in 2022, 1,322 in 2023, 2,220 in 2024 and 2,223 in 2025, and registrations of hybrids of 4,556, 6,175, 10,959, 14,405 and 18,368. Petrol registrations were 24,999 in 2023, 23,157 in 2024 and 22,139 in 2025; diesel 8,211, 9,832 and 9,776.

Brands in the Cyprus car market: what named sources report

CYSTAT’s press release does not rank brands, but its database holds registrations by make, and two Cyprus business outlets publish brand tables from it. Cyprus Business News (InBusinessNews), 19 January 2026, gives the full-year 2025 ranking of passenger cars citing CYSTAT. The Cyprus Mail, 23 October 2026, gives the January to September 2026 ranking, also citing CYSTAT. The reports rank brands, not models. The figures below are the ones printed in those two articles; “not listed” means the article does not give a number for that brand in that column.

Three patterns follow from the printed numbers. First, the overall ranking and the new-car ranking differ because the used segment dominates: Toyota’s 8,232 registrations in January to September 2026 were 24.1% of the 34,156 passenger cars, and 7,435 of them (90.3%) were used. Mazda’s 3,881 included 49 new cars. Second, the new-car ranking has Kia first in both periods, with 1,730 new registrations in 2025 and 1,096 in January to September 2026, which is 10.4% of the 10,521 new cars of that period; Toyota follows with 1,211 and 797. Third, BYD appears in the top five of new cars in 2026 with 678 registrations, a brand that is not among the top five new brands in the 2025 article.

The same outlet’s article of 14 August 2026 (Cyprus Business News, “Car market gains momentum”) gives January to July 2026: new passenger cars led by Kia (943), Toyota (652), Nissan (616), BYD (540) and BMW (520), and used passenger cars led by Toyota (5,556), Mazda (2,954), Nissan (1,382), BMW (1,169) and Mercedes (1,027). Comparing the July and September tables, BYD’s new registrations rose from 540 to 678 and Kia’s from 943 to 1,096 in two months. The articles do not name the origin of the used cars, and CYSTAT’s own release does not break used registrations down by country of origin.

Fleet size and cars per 1,000 inhabitants

CYSTAT-DB’s annual fleet table (updated 6 May 2026) reports vehicles on the register at the end of each year. For passenger cars it shows 743,961 on the register in 2023, 772,626 in 2024 and 802,249 in 2025, of which 625,625, 647,327 and 667,841 respectively were licensed. The difference between the two series is the unlicensed and immobilised vehicles that remain on the register. For all road motor vehicles the licensed total was 819,081 in 2023, 844,642 in 2024 and 867,552 in 2025. Licensed passenger cars grew by 6.75% over the two years from 2023 to 2025.

The composition of the fleet changes much more slowly than the composition of registrations. In 2025 petrol cars were still 69.7% of licensed passenger cars although they were 42.0% of that year’s registrations. Hybrids doubled from 30,830 to 62,198 licensed cars in two years, and electric cars rose from 1,800 to 5,244, which is 0.8% of the licensed passenger-car fleet. Counting all vehicle categories, licensed electric vehicles numbered 1,036 in 2021, 1,828 in 2022, 3,125 in 2023, 5,334 in 2024 and 7,539 in 2025.

For international comparison Eurostat publishes passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants (dataset road_eqs_carhab, updated 6 October 2026). The Cyprus value was 670 in 2025, 659 in 2024 and 647 in 2023, against 584, 577 and 570 for the EU-27 average. The same ratio can be recomputed from the CYSTAT figures: 667,841 licensed passenger cars divided by the Eurostat population of 996,571 on 1 January 2026 gives 670.1. Dividing the full register of 802,249 by the same population gives 805, which is a different measure because it includes cars without a current licence.

How much of travel is by car

The claim that more than 90% of the population depends on private cars does not appear in the Eurostat series on the split of inland passenger transport (dataset tran_hv_psmod, updated 26 August 2026). That series measures the share of passenger-kilometres by mode. In 2024 passenger cars accounted for 82.8% of inland passenger-kilometres in Cyprus and 82.5% in the EU-27; motor coaches and buses accounted for 17.2% in Cyprus and 8.6% in the EU-27, and Cyprus has no passenger rail entry in the series. The Cyprus share was 81.5% in 2019, 87.3% in 2020 and 2021, 84.4% in 2022 and 83.5% in 2023.

Car use and housing location are linked in the data only indirectly, and no source cited here measures that link. For rents and prices by town, where RTD offices and Citizen Service Centres sit in Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Famagusta district and Paphos according to the gov.cy Road Transport Department page, see the pages for Nicosia, Limassol and Paphos and the rental prices by city guide.

Owner costs: registration fee, road tax and VAT

Cyprus no longer charges an excise duty on cars. The Customs and Excise Department’s vehicle pages state that Law 39(I) of 2019, published in the Official Gazette of 22 March 2019, amended the excise legislation so that no excise duties are imposed on motor vehicles transported or imported to the Republic; the Fourth Schedule in the Gazette text lists passenger cars as duty-free and states that vehicles driven exclusively by an electric motor bear no excise duty. What an owner pays after buying a car is therefore made up of the registration fee, the annual road tax (circulation fee), VAT and, for imports from outside the EU, customs duty.

The consolidated text of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Law (Law 86 of 1972, on CyLaw with amendments listed up to Law 77(I) of 2026) sets the rates in Part I of Annex I. Paragraph 1(α) provides that a registration fee of €150 is collected by the Registrar for the registration of a vehicle. Paragraph 8, inserted by Law 47(I) of 2019, sets the annual road tax for passenger cars (category M1) registered since that law took effect. It is the sum of the CO2 emissions in each band multiplied by a rate per gram per kilometre, capped at €1,500 a year.

The CO2 value used is defined in paragraph 8: for a vehicle with an EC Certificate of Conformity it is the “combined” figure in point 49.4, divided by 1.30 and rounded down to a whole number; if the certificate has no point 49.4, the combined figure in point 49.1 is used as printed. Vehicles first registered in Cyprus since the 2019 law also pay an additional amount that depends on the Euro emission standard the vehicle met when built. The amounts in the Annex are €0 for Euro 6 vehicles of any variant, and higher for older standards, with diesel higher than petrol.

Other parts of the same Annex apply to other cases. Electric motor vehicles have an annual road tax of €0.00 in the paragraph 2 table, so battery-electric cars pay no circulation fee, while hybrids and plug-in hybrids pay according to their CO2 figure like any other car. For cars first registered before the 2013 amendment, paragraph 1(γ) keeps an engine-capacity formula (for example €0.04272 per cc up to 1,450 cc and €0.19649 per cc above 2,250 cc, in a six-step table), and for vehicles registered between the 2013 and 2019 laws an earlier CO2 table applies (rates of €0.50, €3.00, €3.00 and €8.00 per gram in the same four bands). Paragraph 10 sets a minimum annual fee of €10 for vehicles that are not zero-rated and adds a special fee of €12, €22 or €32, depending on engine size and CO2, to vehicles outside the exclusions it lists. Paragraph 12 rounds the final amount down to a whole euro.

Paying and renewing road tax

Paragraph 11 allows the annual fee to be paid in two instalments of 55% each or four instalments of 27.5% each, and requires payment within 70 days of the licence expiry date. A payment outside the time limit is increased by €10 plus 10% of the annual, half-year or quarter-year fee. The RTD announced on 9 March 2026, as reported by Politis, that renewal for 2026 had opened on 7 January 2026, that 677,133 vehicles had been renewed by 8 March (against 680,670 at the same date in 2025), that the renewal period without surcharge ended on 11 March 2026, and that licences can be renewed for 3, 6, 9 or 12 months, provided that the vehicle has a valid MOT and valid insurance. The consolidated law contains a one-off paragraph (β3) fixing 31 March 2026 as the latest payment date for 2026. A vehicle whose licence is not renewed for one year and 70 days has its registration cancelled under article 23A of the Law.

VAT

The standard VAT rate in Cyprus is 19% according to the European Union’s Your Europe rates table (Your Europe: VAT rules and rates), and the Customs pages use the same 19% for vehicle imports. A car bought from a Cyprus dealer carries VAT in the price; for imports the VAT is calculated on the customs value plus any import duty, as the worked examples below show.

Importing a used car into Cyprus: EU, UK and other countries

Customs treats cars arriving from the EU, from the United Kingdom and from other countries differently. The pages of the Customs and Excise Department describe four routes, and the table summarises the rules they state. After clearance every vehicle must be registered with the Road Transport Department before it can be licensed for road tax, according to each of those pages.

For cars from the EU the VAT test turns on age and distance. According to the Customs relief page, a vehicle is “used” for this purpose only if more than six months have passed between its first entry into service and its acquisition and it has travelled more than 6,000 kilometres; if either condition is not met it is a new means of transport and is liable to Cyprus VAT whether or not VAT was paid in the origin state. The exception is a person transferring normal residence from another member state: a vehicle that counts as new then creates no VAT liability if the origin-state VAT is proven, for example by an invoice.

For cars from outside the EU the Customs page (last updated 14 May 2021 on the page) states that all vehicles, new or used, bear import duty and VAT; the standard duty rate for passenger cars is 10% of the customs value, which is the purchase price plus freight and insurance up to the port or airport of entry (the CIF value), and VAT at 19% is charged on that value plus the duty. For motorcycles of up to 250 cc the duty is 8% and above 250 cc it is 6%. If the vehicle is not cleared it may be placed in a customs warehouse, re-exported or moved to another EU state.

Age and technical rules sit with the Road Transport Department, not with Customs. In an announcement of 19 January 2021 on cars arriving from the United Kingdom after Brexit, reported by the Cyprus Mail, the RTD stated that an M1 passenger car can be registered if it is no more than five years old on arrival, counted from the date it was first registered anywhere; the documents listed were the original registration certificate, a Cypriot MOT and either an EU Whole Vehicle Type-Approval or a Single Vehicle Approval issued in Cyprus. The Customs pages for non-EU imports advise contacting the RTD before shipping, because the RTD applies restrictions to cars from outside the EU. The UK government’s guidance for British nationals adds that a vehicle can be brought into the Republic of Cyprus but not imported through the northern part of the island, where the authorities may seize it (GOV.UK, Living in Cyprus, updated 5 February 2026). People who carry cash to pay for a vehicle should note the declaration rules described in our guide to cash declaration at the Cyprus border.

Inspection, insurance and annual obligations for car owners

Technical inspection follows the EU roadworthiness directive. Directive 2014/45/EU, Article 5, provides for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles to be tested four years after first registration and every two years after that (EUR-Lex, Directive 2014/45/EU). A visitor guide published by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation with the Police and the Ministry of Communications and Works describes the Cyprus practice in the same way: private vehicles are inspected four years after their first registration as new and then every two years at private inspection centres (IKTEO), and other vehicles such as buses and trucks are in general inspected at RTD centres one year after registration and then every year, with the circulation licence invalidated if the test lapses (Cyprus Tourism Organisation, A guide to driving in Cyprus). The RTD statement reported by Politis on 9 March 2026 adds that road tax can only be renewed with a valid MOT and valid insurance.

Liability insurance is compulsory. The EU’s Your Europe page on driving abroad states that a car’s number plate is proof that it has liability insurance, and that policies issued in an EU country cover injury to others throughout the EU (Your Europe: driving licence and car insurance validity). The Cyprus Tourism Organisation guide states that a visiting vehicle must be covered by a valid insurance certificate covering third-party liability. Comprehensive cover is optional and its price depends on the insurer, the car and the driver, so no figure is quoted here.

Electric and hybrid vehicles: grants and tax treatment in 2026

Tax treatment follows from the road tax rules above. Electric cars pay €0 road tax under paragraph 2 of Part I of Annex I; hybrids and plug-in hybrids pay by their CO2 figure, so a hybrid certified at 100 g/km after conversion pays €50 a year before any Euro-standard amount. The registration fee is €150 for every category. VAT is charged at the standard rate described in the VAT section above.

Purchase grants are paid under the Electromobility Promotion Scheme, run by the Road Transport Department within the Recovery and Resilience Plan. The Funding Programmes Portal of the Directorate General Growth lists the “E-Mobility promotion plan in Cyprus 4th announcement November 2025” with a budget of €5,620,000, an opening date of 28 November 2025, a closing date of 30 June 2026 and the status “Closed” (Funding Programmes Portal). The terms of the fourth call were reported by Fast Forward on 1 December 2025 (Fast Forward, 4th EV grant call): the application window ran from 9:00 on 5 December to 9:00 on 9 December 2025, a lottery was to decide if applications exceeded the grants available, and approved applicants had to complete vehicle registration by 30 June 2026.

The European Alternative Fuels Observatory’s Cyprus page, in a snapshot dated 18 April 2025, describes earlier terms of the same scheme: a €9,000 grant for a new battery-electric car with a maximum eligible price of €80,000 including VAT, a used battery-electric car at most three years old, a retention period of two years (five years for the social categories), and a separate €7,500 scrapping incentive that applies to a plug-in hybrid emitting 50 g/km of CO2 or less that replaces an old combustion vehicle (European Alternative Fuels Observatory, Cyprus incentives). As of 29 October 2026 the Funding Programmes Portal lists the fourth call as closed. Context on charging, prices and adoption is in our post on electric vehicles in Cyprus.

Rules for new residents: licences, foreign-plated cars and driving rules

Driving licences

Which licence a new resident may use, and for how long, depends on where it was issued. For EU and EEA licences, Your Europe states that holders who move to another EU country do not usually have to exchange the licence, that a person can hold only one EU licence at a time, and that exchange becomes compulsory if the licence is lost, stolen or damaged, if the holder commits a traffic offence in the country of residence, or, where the national authorities require it, after two years of usual residence for licences with indefinite validity (Your Europe: driving licence exchange and recognition). Its example of an Italian licence exchanged in Cyprus notes that the Cypriot licence is valid for 15 years instead of Italy’s 10. The residence permit rules that decide where a person is a resident are on our Cyprus residence permit page.

For the United Kingdom, the UK government’s guidance for people living in Cyprus says a licence issued in the UK, Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man can be used for up to six months, cannot be replaced or renewed while living in Cyprus, and that a UK licence must be exchanged to continue driving after six months, using a DVLA or DVA check code and a visit to a district office of the RTD; an International Driving Permit does not replace the exchange, and licences from Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man cannot be exchanged and require a test. For other countries, the government road-safety leaflet lists the arrangements for visitors and residents, summarised below. Politis reported on 13 June 2026 that exchanges use form TOM 7D, a photo, proof of lawful residence and the original licence, with a listed fee of €40, and that recognition depends on whether the issuing country appears in the official notification (Politis, Driving in Cyprus: do you need a local licence).

Bringing a foreign-plated car

A car may be brought in temporarily or permanently. The Customs guide on temporary importation of private vehicles from outside the EU (September 2005 edition, on the Customs website) states that a visitor whose normal residence is outside the EU may bring an owned vehicle for private use for up to six months per year without duties and taxes on Form C104, that the vehicle must be re-exported at the end of the period, and that longer periods are allowed for students and for people on a task of fixed duration. The vehicle must not be lent, sold or used for hire. Normal residence is defined there as living in a place at least 185 days in a twelve-month period. The Cyprus Tourism Organisation guide adds that a visitor’s car must carry a registration certificate and valid road licence from its country of origin, that a Cyprus licence fee is payable if the foreign licence expires during the stay, and that the driver needs valid third-party insurance and a valid driving licence. A person who moves residence permanently follows the transfer-of-residence rules in the import section above, including one month of temporary driving while the relief application is decided.

Left-hand traffic and basic driving rules

Cyprus drives on the left side of the road. The government road-safety leaflet, produced by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation with the Cyprus Police, the Ministry of Communications and Works and the car-hire associations, states that the maximum speed is 100 km/h on major highways (minimum 65 km/h), 80 km/h on ordinary inter-urban and rural roads unless posted otherwise, and 50 km/h in built-up areas (Cyprus road-safety leaflet on gov.cy, uploaded May 2024). The blood alcohol limit is 50 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood (22 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath); the Cyprus Tourism Organisation guide adds that a lower limit of 20 mg in blood or 9 micrograms in breath applies to drivers who have held a licence for under three years, learner drivers, motorcyclists, drivers of heavy goods vehicles and buses, taxi drivers on duty and drivers of dangerous cargo. Hand-held phones are prohibited; seat belts are compulsory in front and back, and children under 1.5 m must use a suitable restraint. On highways vehicles use the left lane and the right lane only for overtaking. The emergency numbers are 199 and 112. Police may issue on-the-spot fixed penalties, and penalty points are recorded on the licence under article 20A of the Law. The UK government’s travel advice for Cyprus (GOV.UK travel advice) warns that heavy fines can apply for not wearing a seat belt, using a mobile while driving and drink-driving; the advice does not list amounts.

Worked examples of Cyprus car costs (illustrations only)

The examples apply the rules quoted above to hypothetical cars. They are arithmetic illustrations, not price quotes: they leave out shipping, clearance agents, inspection fees, insurance and dealer margins, and the amounts printed by the RTD for an actual vehicle are the ones that apply.

Example 1: annual road tax under paragraph 8

A petrol car first registered in Cyprus has “combined” CO2 of 130 g/km in point 49.4 of its certificate. Step 1: 130 divided by 1.30 equals 100 g/km. Step 2: all 100 g/km fall in the first band, so 100 × €0.50 = €50. A car at 169 g/km becomes 169 ÷ 1.30 = 130.0, rounded down to 130 g/km: the first 120 g/km give 120 × €0.50 = €60 and the next 10 g/km give 10 × €3.00 = €30, a total of €90. A car at 208 g/km becomes 160 g/km: €60 plus 30 × €3.00 = €90 for the second band plus 10 × €5.00 = €50 in the third band, a total of €200.

The Euro-standard amount is added on top for vehicles first registered since the 2019 law: a diesel car that met Euro 5a would add €250 to the €200 above, giving €450, and a petrol car built to Euro 4 or earlier would add €300, giving €500, while a Euro 6 car adds nothing.

Example 2: a used car from a non-EU country

A used car costs €15,000 at origin, with freight and insurance of €1,000 to the port of entry. The customs value (CIF) is €16,000. Import duty at 10% is €1,600. The VAT base is €16,000 + €1,600 = €17,600, and VAT at 19% is €3,344. Adding the €150 registration fee and a first-year road tax of €90 (the 169 g/km car from example 1, Euro 6) gives €1,600 + €3,344 + €150 + €90 = €5,184 in duties, taxes and fees. If the same car qualified for zero duty as a United Kingdom origin vehicle, the VAT base would be €16,000 and the VAT €3,040, so the total would be €3,040 + €150 + €90 = €3,280.

Example 3: a used car from another EU state

A car first registered 20 months ago with 35,000 km on the clock is “used” under the Customs test (more than six months and more than 6,000 km). No import duty applies and no Cyprus VAT is charged on arrival, so the Cypriot charges are the €150 registration fee and the road tax, for example €90 for the 130 g/km case above. A car first registered 4 months ago with 3,000 km is a new means of transport; if its taxable value were €25,000, VAT at 19% would be €4,750.

Example 4: late and instalment payments of road tax

For an annual road tax of €200, paying in two instalments means 2 × (55% × €200) = 2 × €110 = €220, and paying in four instalments means 4 × (27.5% × €200) = 4 × €55 = €220. A payment made after the 70-day limit would be increased by €10 + (10% × €200) = €10 + €20 = €30, giving €230.

What each named source reports, with dates

The table lists the sources used in this guide in order of type, with the date of each document or dataset update and the main figure drawn from it. Where a source is a news report of an official statement, the report is named and the official body is named in the third column.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many vehicles were registered in the Cyprus car market in 2025?

In 2025 the Cyprus car market recorded 52,508 registrations of road motor vehicles, according to CYSTAT, up 5.8% from 49,616 in 2024. Passenger cars were 40,778, of which 14,633 (35.9%) were new and 26,145 (64.1%) were used. The figures come from the release of 12 January 2026.

What happened to registrations in the first nine months of 2026?

According to CYSTAT’s release of 9 October 2026, the Cyprus car market registered 43,890 vehicles in January to September 2026, 9.1% more than the 40,212 of the same period of 2025. Used registrations rose 19.9% to 27,473 and new registrations fell 5.1% to 16,417. September alone was 5,326, which was 3.9% below September 2025.

Do new or used cars make up more of the Cyprus car market?

Used cars make up the larger part of the Cyprus car market. In January to September 2026 CYSTAT counted 23,635 used passenger cars (69.2%) and 10,521 new ones (30.8%). In 2025 the split was 64.1% used and 35.9% new, and in 2023 it was 60.0% used and 40.0% new.

Which fuel type has the largest share of registrations?

Hybrid. In the Cyprus car market CYSTAT gives hybrids 53.0% of passenger-car registrations in January to September 2026, against 34.8% for petrol, 8.0% for diesel and 4.2% for electric. In the licensed fleet at the end of 2025 petrol still held 69.7% and hybrids 9.3%.

How many cars are there per 1,000 inhabitants, and is the 90% car dependency claim right?

Eurostat gives 670 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants for Cyprus in 2025, against 584 for the EU-27. On the share of travel, Eurostat’s modal-split series shows cars at 82.8% of inland passenger-kilometres in Cyprus in 2024, against 82.5% in the EU-27, so a figure above 90% is not what that series reports.

What does it cost to register a car and keep it on the road?

For the Cyprus car market the Law sets a registration fee of €150. Annual road tax for cars registered since the 2019 law is the CO2 formula (€0.50, €3.00, €5.00 and €10.00 per gram in four bands, capped at €1,500), plus an amount for older Euro standards; electric cars pay €0. VAT is 19%, and imports from outside the EU also bear 10% duty. The worked examples above show the arithmetic.

Is there still an excise or registration tax on cars in Cyprus?

Customs states that since Law 39(I)/2019 of 22 March 2019 no excise duties are imposed on motor vehicles transported or imported to the Republic. The payment at registration in the Law is the flat €150 registration fee, and the CO2-based charge is the annual road tax.

How long can a new resident use a foreign driving licence?

An EU licence can usually continue to be used, with exchange compulsory only in the cases Your Europe lists. A UK licence can be used for up to six months before it must be exchanged, according to GOV.UK. The government leaflet gives six months for a list of 16 other countries (exchange without a test) and 30 days for other non-European visitors.

Which side of the road do cars use, and what are the main limits?

Traffic keeps to the left. The government leaflet gives 100 km/h on major highways, 80 km/h on ordinary rural roads and 50 km/h in built-up areas, a blood alcohol limit of 50 mg per 100 ml, compulsory seat belts and a ban on hand-held phones.

Is an electric-vehicle grant open in Cyprus now?

The Funding Programmes Portal lists the fourth call of the Electromobility Promotion Scheme as closed on 30 June 2026, with a budget of €5,620,000. According to Fast Forward’s report of 1 December 2025 its grants were €9,000 for private zero-emission cars and up to €20,000 for disabled users and large families.

Last checked: 29 October 2026. Sources: CYSTAT, Registration of Motor Vehicles, January–September 2026 (9 Oct 2026); CYSTAT, January–December 2025 (12 Jan 2026); CYSTAT, January–December 2024 (10 Jan 2025); CYSTAT, January–December 2023 (9 Jan 2024); CYSTAT services and transport statistics (CYSTAT-DB); Eurostat, road_eqs_carhab; Eurostat, tran_hv_psmod; Eurostat, demo_gind; Law 86/1972 consolidated, CyLaw; Law 47(I)/2019; Law 39(I)/2019; Customs and Excise Department, vehicles from outside the EU; Customs and Excise Department, vehicles from EU member states; Customs and Excise Department, vehicles from the United Kingdom; Customs and Excise Department, transfer of residence relief; Customs guide, temporary importation of private vehicles; Funding Programmes Portal, e-mobility fourth call; Fast Forward, 1 Dec 2025; European Alternative Fuels Observatory; Cyprus road-safety leaflet (gov.cy, May 2024); Cyprus Tourism Organisation, A guide to driving in Cyprus; Your Europe, driving licence exchange; Your Europe, licence and insurance validity; Your Europe, VAT rates; GOV.UK, Living in Cyprus; GOV.UK, Cyprus travel advice; EUR-Lex, Directive 2014/45/EU; Cyprus Mail, 23 Oct 2026; Cyprus Mail, 19 Jan 2021; Cyprus Business News, 19 Jan 2026; Cyprus Business News, 14 Aug 2026; Politis, 9 Mar 2026; Politis, 13 Jun 2026; gov.cy, Road Transport Department.