How to export a car from Dubai
In short: Exporting a car from Dubai means cancelling its Dubai registration and taking an RTA export certificate. On a light vehicle that cancellation is AED 140, and the export technical inspection is AED 100. It is the right route when the buyer is genuinely overseas. If you only want the money, selling here is fewer steps.
Exporting a car out of Dubai and selling it here are two different transactions with the same starting point: a car you own and no longer want to keep in the country. One is an administrative process with published fees at the Dubai end and an unknown bill at the other. The other is a sale with a marketing period attached.
Worth pricing both before you commit to either.
What does exporting a car from Dubai involve?
Two of the RTA transactions at the Dubai end have published prices.
The first is the inspection. The RTA describes the vehicle inspection as a mandatory appointment at approved service centres to check roadworthiness, in order to register, renew or export a vehicle with plates in Dubai. There is a distinct export test inside that service: it applies before a vehicle leaves the UAE, and it captures identification data such as chassis and engine details. The export technical inspection is AED 100.
The second is the registration. The RTA service is called Cancel Vehicle Registration, Export Certificate, and for a light vehicle it comes to AED 140.
| Step at the Dubai end | Fee | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Export technical inspection | AED 100 | RTA test before the vehicle leaves the UAE, capturing chassis and engine identification |
| Export certificate | AED 50 | Part of cancelling the Dubai registration |
| Export plates | AED 70 | The plates the car carries out |
| Knowledge and Innovation fee | AED 20 | Charged on the cancellation |
| Cancellation total, light vehicle | AED 140 | Certificate, plates and the knowledge fee together |
| All-in at the Dubai end, light vehicle | AED 240 | The export inspection and the cancellation together |
Two things about that table. It is the RTA's part and only the RTA's part. Shipping and whatever the destination country charges at its own border are not in it, and the RTA does not publish those figures. They come from the shipping company and from the customs authority of the country the car is going to, and they are worth having in writing before anything is booked.
The other thing is that the export certificate is a one-way door. The RTA states that once the vehicle has left the UAE, the certificate cannot be replaced. A document that cannot be reissued once the car is gone deserves a photograph and a copy in your own email before it goes anywhere near a container.
When is selling the car in Dubai the simpler answer?
When the buyer is not actually overseas.
Export earns its cost in a narrow set of cases: you are shipping the car to yourself, the buyer lives in another country, or you have reason to believe the model fetches more in the destination market than it does here. Outside those, exporting means paying for an inspection and a cancellation, arranging freight, and then registering a used car in a foreign system, all to arrive at money a buyer in Dubai would have handed over without any of it.
| Exporting the car | Selling on consignment with SellCarEasy | |
|---|---|---|
| Who finds the buyer | You, in the destination market | SellCarEasy advertises the car and handles buyer contact |
| What happens to the registration | Cancelled, export plates issued, AED 140 on a light vehicle | Transferred to the buyer when the sale completes |
| Paid before anything happens | The RTA fees, plus shipping | AED 0. No upfront costs |
| If it does not happen | The cancellation has already been paid | Nothing. Commission is charged only on a completed sale |
| Where the car is meanwhile | With you until it ships | With you, and you keep driving it |
| Published time expectation | No published timeline. Freight time comes from the shipping company and the destination | Most cars sell within 2 to 4 weeks |
One point to be straight about. Exporting is not one of SellCarEasy's published services. The published list is consignment selling, car sales to buyers, a free, market-based valuation, and help arranging financing through UAE banks. If you are set on shipping the car out, ask SellCarEasy directly whether that is something they handle.
What SellCarEasy does is sell the car on your behalf rather than buy it from you. The car stays in your possession while it is advertised, so you keep driving it right up to the day it sells. You set the minimum price you are willing to accept, and it is not sold below that. Photography, advertising, buyer contact, viewings, the contract, the settlement and the ownership transfer are handled for you, and legal assistance and secure payment handling are part of the arrangement. Nothing is payable in advance and nothing is payable if the car does not sell. The commission itself is not published on the site, so ask for it in the first conversation.
If the car still has finance on it, that question comes before the routing decision. Ownership in the UAE cannot move to a new owner until the lender releases its mortgage, which is covered in selling a car with an outstanding bank loan. And if a departure date is what is driving the decision, selling your car before you leave the UAE counts the same steps backwards from the flight.
How do I start?
Price the two routes against the same number, which means getting a valuation before you book an inspection. It is free and it commits you to nothing.
There are two forms and the difference between them is practical. The short valuation form on sell your car asks for the chassis number and the mileage as a typed figure, along with your name, phone and email. The fuller one on register your car asks for the chassis number, your contact details, any faults and issues, the service history, the extra equipment fitted, extra keys, a tow bar, child seats, the original documentation and the service book, and up to ten photos at five megabytes each. There is no mileage field on that one. The odometer goes in as a photograph instead, one of eight recommended shots alongside the front, the rear, both sides, the interior from the driver's seat, the dashboard and any damage.
Either way a reply comes within 24 hours, with a market-based valuation drawn from the car's condition, its mileage and the Dubai market. It is an estimate of what the car should sell for here, not a guaranteed price and not an offer to buy it.
To talk it through first, call +971 52 270 8056, email info@sellcareasy.com, or use the contact page. SellCarEasy is at 10 San'a Rd, Ras Al Khor Ind. First, Dubai, open Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 18:00. The rest of the guides are at guides, and if the export test itself is what you are trying to understand, the RTA car inspection sets out what is checked and what each category costs. How to sell a car in Dubai puts export next to the five other routes.
Sources:
- Roads and Transport Authority, Cancel Vehicle Registration, Export Certificate. AED 50 certificate, AED 70 export plates, AED 20 knowledge and innovation fee, and that the certificate cannot be replaced once the vehicle has left the UAE.
- Roads and Transport Authority, Apply for Vehicle Inspection. The service description covering registration, renewal and export, and the AED 100 export technical inspection fee.
- Roads and Transport Authority, Vehicle Testing by RTA (PDF). The export test as a distinct test type, applied before a vehicle leaves the UAE and capturing chassis and engine identification data.
- SellCarEasy's own pages: sell your car, register your car, about and contact, for the consignment model, the published service list, the form fields, the 2 to 4 week expectation, the 24 hour response and the opening hours.