Driving a UK-registered car in Greece: the rules for residents, what registration tax and the KTEO cost, and what to do instead

How long can I keep it on UK plates?

It depends on where your normal residence is. Someone whose home is abroad may use a foreign-registered car in Greece for up to six months in any 12 months, with up to 15 days more in exceptional cases; there are exceptions for Greeks who work abroad at least six months a year and for people in Greece temporarily for work or training. Once your home is in Greece, that rule no longer covers you. Since Brexit a UK-registered car is a vehicle from outside the EU, and under article 154 of law 5222/2025 (amended in 2026) a person established in Greece who keeps or drives one without putting it through Greek registration commits an offence. The car can be seized, and prosecution is avoided only by paying a fine equal to the taxes due on the car and giving up the right to challenge the assessment. If you come forward yourself before the car is found, the penalty is instead a daily late fee of €10 to €50 by engine size, or a flat €1,500 if you can't prove when the car arrived. For EU-registered cars the fixed fines run from €2,500 to €10,000 by engine size. AADE flags cars from toll-road data; its "Supercars" operation in April 2026 impounded 229 foreign-plated vehicles worth more than €10 million. On the UK side, the registration doesn't lapse, but the DVLA expects to be told when a car leaves the UK for 12 months or more, as a permanent export.

Can a right-hand-drive car be registered?

A right-hand-drive car goes through the same steps as any other import. Expect the KTEO to check that the headlamps are set for driving on the right, and since Brexit you will need proof that the car meets EU type-approval and emissions standards, such as a certificate of conformity or a technical statement from the manufacturer showing its Euro standard and CO2. Euro 1, 2 and 3 cars can't be registered at all. Greek buyers pay much less for right-hand drive, which matters when you come to sell.

What registering it involves

1. Proof that the car meets EU type-approval and emissions standards: a certificate of conformity or the manufacturer's technical statement showing the Euro standard and CO2.
2. Assessment of the taxable value and the registration tax (τέλος ταξινόμησης) by AADE, and payment.
3. A KTEO roadworthiness test, required for an imported car more than four years old.
4. Registration at the regional transport directorate: Greek plates and registration certificate, Greek insurance, and annual road tax (τέλη κυκλοφορίας) from then on.

What it costs

• Registration tax (τέλος ταξινόμησης), a progressive scale on the taxable value: 4% on the first €14,000, then 26% on the slice up to €17,000, 53% up to €20,000, 62% up to €25,000 and 71% up to €30,000.
• For a used car the taxable value is the new-car price before taxes, cut by an official percentage for age and body type (for an eight-year-old car: 76% for a hatchback, 77% for an SUV, 83% for a saloon) and a little more for mileage above 15,000 km a year. The rate is the one the scale gives for the new price.
• Surcharges: 10% to 100% for CO2 above 120 g/km (5% off at 100 g/km or less; these are NEDC figures, and cars first registered from 2021 use higher WLTP bands); 50% for a Euro 6 car first registered up to 31 August 2018, more for older Euro standards. Euro 4 cars also pay a €3,000 environmental charge and early Euro 5 cars €1,000.
• Example (illustrative figures): an eight-year-old hatchback that cost €20,000 before taxes new, 120 g/km, first registered in September 2018 or later. Registration tax about €700 (the scale gives €2,930 on €20,000, a rate of 14.65%, applied to the €4,800 left after the 76% reduction).
• The same car first registered before September 2018 pays about €1,050 in registration tax.
• On top: the KTEO test (about €50) and registration and plates (about €75–175).

Moving home with the car?

If your normal residence was outside Greece for at least 24 months and you used the car there for at least six months before moving, you can claim the relocation relief (μετοικεσία). For a move from the UK it removes the registration tax in full, for one car, once per person. (Moves from the Americas, Africa, Oceania and some Gulf states get only 80% or 50% off the registration tax.) You need a relocation certificate from the Greek consulate where you lived, valid for 12 months, and the documents listed in AADE decision Α.1137/2025. For one year the car may not be lent, pledged, leased or sold. After that a sale needs AADE's approval and repays part of the registration tax: 50% in the second year, 40% in the third, 30% in the fourth, 20% in the fifth and nothing after five years. The KTEO, registration and plates are still needed.

The alternative: sell it back to the UK

The obvious comparison is driving it back to the UK yourself. Athens to Calais is roughly 3,000 km by road, or the ferry from Patras to Ancona and about 1,500 km from there: three or four days at the wheel, plus fuel, ferries, tolls, the journey back and then the job of selling the car in the UK. From the islands, add another ferry. It only works while the MOT and UK insurance are valid, and for a resident the drive to the border is itself use of a car that should already be on Greek plates. We collect it free from your address, handle the export paperwork, and pay you in pounds sterling (£) by bank transfer on collection day.

Common questions

Rules, rates and thresholds change. This guide is a general summary as of October 2026, not legal or tax advice — check the current position with the registration authority before relying on it.

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