TBILISI, September 22 – Georgia’s appetite for cars keeps growing, with both imports and exports up sharply this year despite new US tariffs that industry watchers feared would squeeze the market.
From January to August 2025, Georgia imported 148,859 vehicles worth $2.42 billion, up nearly 9% from the same period last year, according to the National Statistics Office. Cars from the United States dominated the trade: 117,700 vehicles worth $1.44 billion arrived from America, compared with 97,913 in the same period of 2024. That puts the average pre-tax cost of an imported US car at about $12,200, only slightly higher than last year’s $12,000.
The modest rise comes even after US President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on auto imports and parts earlier this year. Dealers in Tbilisi say the tariffs raised prices by only about 5% and had little effect on demand.
“Despite the increase in US car prices, sales have not slowed. In fact, demand has risen,” said Giorgi Surguladze, executive director of Caucasus Auto Import, one of the country’s largest importers. He noted especially strong growth for hybrid and electric vehicles.
But not everyone in the business agrees the outlook is good. Elguja Jamagidze, founder of Robani Motors, told Rezonansi that while tariffs did not hit hard, competition from foreign traders is creating what he called unfair conditions. He accused Kazakh, Tajik, and Kyrgyz middlemen of using Georgia as a transit hub to re-export vehicles to Russia, undermining local dealers. “Georgian dealers have been pushed out of the supply chain,” he said, adding that some have quit the business altogether.
Georgia has long served as a regional hub for used cars, importing large volumes from the US and then re-exporting them to markets across the Caucasus, Central Asia, and beyond. Today nearly 1.9 million vehicles are registered in the country, a number rising daily as demand grows both at home and abroad.
While some in the trade say foreign competition is squeezing locals, others dismiss the claims as rumors. “There is no unhealthy competition,” Surguladze said. “That talk has been artificially stirred up.”
