News & Guides /
How Much Does a Certificate of Conformity Cost in 2026? Prices by Brand and Format
By I. Constantin, auto-coc.eu · Prices verified live 31 August 2026
A duplicate Certificate of Conformity for a car costs between €124 and €294 excl. VAT as of August 2026, depending on the manufacturer. The PDF version is the cheaper of the two formats; the physical original usually adds €15. Processing takes anywhere from 3 to 40 working days, and that too is set by the brand, not by the seller.
One thing to clear up before the numbers. This article is about the vehicle document — the Certificate of Conformity (CoC), also called the EC Certificate of Conformity, or Übereinstimmungsbescheinigung if you are dealing with a German registration office. It is not the “certificate of conformity” from product compliance and CE marking, which is a completely different world with its own laboratory testing bills. If you landed here after a search that mixed the two, you are in the right place for the car one.
What are you actually paying for?
You are paying for a second copy of a document your car already had once. The Certificate of Conformity is issued by the manufacturer and states that your specific vehicle, identified by its VIN, matches an EU type approval. Registration offices across the 27 member states use it to enter the car in the national register without a technical inspection of the whole vehicle.
Under Regulation (EU) 2018/858, the manufacturer has to deliver that certificate free of charge to the buyer, together with the vehicle. It cannot be made conditional on a request or on extra paperwork. So the first copy was never something you paid for — it came with the car.
The trouble starts later. The document goes missing during a resale, or the previous owner in Germany kept it, or the leasing company never passed it on. At that point you need a duplicate, and a duplicate is always paid. The manufacturer has to pull the vehicle record out of its archive, reissue the certificate and sign it off. Every brand runs that archive differently, which is exactly why the price on your invoice depends on the badge on your bonnet. If you want the background on the document itself rather than the bill, we covered what a Certificate of Conformity actually is in the full guide.
How much does a CoC cost for your brand?
Below are the live prices for 31 brands, read from our own product pages on 31 August 2026. All figures are net, excl. VAT — VAT is calculated at checkout based on your country, unless you enter a valid EU VAT number. “PDF” is the digital certificate by email. “Physical” is the paper original by courier, with the PDF included.
The last column is the manufacturer’s processing time, which starts once the VIN is validated and ends when the document is issued. Shipping of the paper copy comes after that, not inside it.
| Brand | PDF only | Physical CoC | Processing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ford | €124.00 | €139.00 | 5 working days |
| SEAT | €124.00 | €139.00 | 4 working days |
| Škoda | €124.00 | €139.00 | 4 working days |
| Volvo | €124.00 | €139.00 | 8 working days |
| Audi Certificate of Conformity | €134.00 | €149.00 | 4 working days |
| Volkswagen | €134.00 | €149.00 | 4 working days |
| Toyota | €144.00 | €159.00 | 5 working days |
| Hyundai Certificate of Conformity | €154.00 | €169.00 | 3 working days |
| BMW Certificate of Conformity | €164.00 | €179.00 | 15 working days |
| Opel | €164.00 | €179.00 | 6 working days |
| Jaguar | €184.00 | €194.00 | 40 working days |
| Honda | €194.00 | €209.00 | 6 working days |
| Kia CoC | €194.00 | €209.00 | 5 working days |
| Peugeot | €194.00 | €224.00 | 4 working days |
| Citroën Certificate of Conformity | €194.00 | €224.00 | 5 working days |
| Dacia CoC | €224.00 | €239.00 | 12 working days |
| Mitsubishi CoC — order page | €224.00 | €239.00 | 20 working days |
| Renault | €224.00 | €245.00 | 12 working days |
| Suzuki | €234.00 | €249.00 | up to 15 working days |
| Mercedes-Benz CoC price and delivery | €244.00 | €259.00 | 9 working days |
| Alfa Romeo Certificate of Conformity | €254.00 | €269.00 | 15 working days |
| Fiat | €254.00 | €269.00 | 15 working days |
| Nissan CoC | €254.00 | €269.00 | 18 working days |
| Tesla | €289.00 | €304.00 | 15 working days |
| Porsche | €294.00 | €309.00 | 25 working days |
| Motorcycles | |||
| Honda Moto | €184.00 | €199.00 | 12 working days |
| Suzuki Moto | €254.00 | €269.00 | up to 15 working days |
| Yamaha Certificate of Conformity | €289.00 | €304.00 | 15 working days |
| Trucks | |||
| Renault Truck | €214.00 | €229.00 | 6 working days |
| MAN Certificate of Conformity | €254.00 | €269.00 | 9 working days |
| Iveco CoC | €274.00 | €289.00 | 15 working days |
Motorhome and caravan certificates sit above this range — Hymer, Knaus, Trigano and the rest run from around €244 to €424 net. The full price list has every brand we handle.
Two things in that table are worth a second look. A Dacia certificate costs €90 more than a Volkswagen one, even though the car is worth a fraction as much — paperwork price has nothing to do with vehicle price. And speed is not bought: Hyundai issues in 3 working days at €154, while Jaguar takes 40 working days at €184.
Why is the CoC price different for every brand?
Because the work behind it is different for every brand. The fee is not a markup we invented per manufacturer — it reflects what each carmaker charges and how much manual handling its process needs.
Some manufacturers have a clean digital archive and an automated reissue channel. Volkswagen Group brands are the clearest example: Audi, SEAT, Škoda and VW all come back in four working days, and they sit at the bottom of the price range. Others store older records in a way that needs a person to dig them out, verify the build data and re-sign the document. That labour ends up in the price.
Then there is the brand’s own fee policy. A few manufacturers treat duplicate certificates as a service they would rather not provide and price them accordingly. Jaguar’s 40 working days is the extreme case of a slow internal route, and Porsche’s €294 is the extreme case of an expensive one.
Age of the car matters too. If the vehicle is old enough that its record sits in a legacy system, the search takes longer regardless of brand. That is the same reason some cars cannot get a CoC at all — no EU type approval on file means there is nothing to reissue.
Is a digital CoC cheaper than a physical one?
Yes. The PDF is €10 to €30 cheaper than the paper original, €15 in most cases. It is the same document with the same legal content — the difference is the carrier, not the certificate.
| Format | What you get | When it arrives | Price difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDF only | Digital certificate by email, manufacturer-issued | On the day processing completes | Baseline |
| Physical CoC | Paper original by courier, PDF included | Processing + 3–7 working days shipping | Usually +€15 (Jaguar +€10, Renault +€21, Citroën and Peugeot +€30) |
Which one you need depends on where you register. Since 5 July 2026, Regulation (EU) 2018/858 allows manufacturers to skip the paper certificate for new vehicles entirely when they publish it as structured data in electronic format instead. The direction of travel is obvious. But registration offices did not all switch on the same day, and for a used import the office in front of you decides what it accepts.
In practice: several offices are happy with a PDF, others still want the paper with the manufacturer’s security features on it. Our country guides go into what each authority asks for — the German Zulassungsstelle and the French Agence Nationale des Titres Sécurisés (ANTS) process are the two we get asked about most.
If you have not yet booked your registration appointment and cannot check, order the physical version. You get the PDF with it anyway, so the €15 buys you the option of not repeating the whole process.
What is included in the price — and what is not
The price in the table covers the manufacturer’s fee for reissuing the certificate, our handling and VIN validation, and standard shipping of the paper original where you order it. There is an express courier upgrade of just under €20 net if you need the paper faster — that shortens shipping only. Nothing shortens the manufacturer’s processing time.
What the price does not cover is everything else about bringing a car into your country. Registration tax, VAT on the vehicle, transport, plates, roadworthiness testing, local emissions charges — none of that is in this figure. The CoC is one line on a much longer bill, and usually one of the smaller ones.
That distinction matters when you are budgeting. If what you actually need is the full breakdown of total import costs, not just the CoC, we keep a separate checklist for that. This article answers the narrower question: what does the document itself cost.
One more cost nobody mentions until it hits: time. If your registration appointment is in two weeks and your car is a Mitsubishi, the 20 working days of processing will not fit. Order the certificate the day you commit to the car, not the week you plan to register it. We break down where the waiting actually happens in a separate guide.
What happens if the manufacturer cannot issue your CoC?
You get your money back. Some VINs genuinely have no certificate available — vehicles built for a non-EU market, cars old enough to predate systematic EU type approval, or records the manufacturer no longer holds.
This is why the VIN gets validated before the order goes through rather than after. Checking eligibility costs nothing and takes seconds, and it is the step that prevents the worst version of this story: paying, waiting three weeks, and then finding out the document was never going to exist.
If the certificate turns out to be unavailable after payment, the order is refunded within 14 days. And if your situation is the more common one — the document existed, you just no longer have it — that is a straightforward replacement CoC request.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Certificate of Conformity cost?
Between €124 and €294 excl. VAT for mainstream car brands, as of August 2026. Motorcycles run from €184 to €289, trucks from €214 to €274, and motorhomes higher. The exact figure depends on your manufacturer — see the table above.
How much does a Mercedes Certificate of Conformity cost?
€244.00 excl. VAT for the PDF and €259.00 for the paper original, with 9 working days of processing. Brand dealers typically quote considerably more for the same manufacturer-issued document.
Is a PDF CoC valid for registration?
Often, but not everywhere. It is the same official document, and EU rules have been moving towards electronic certificates since July 2026. Acceptance still varies between individual registration offices, so check with yours or order the paper version to be safe.
Why is the CoC price different for each brand?
Because each manufacturer charges its own fee and runs its own archive. Brands with automated digital records reissue in days and charge less. Brands that need manual retrieval of build data charge more and take longer.
Is the first Certificate of Conformity free?
Yes. Regulation (EU) 2018/858 requires the manufacturer to hand the certificate over free of charge with the vehicle. You pay only for duplicates, which is what most people importing a used car need.
What is the cheapest way to get a Certificate of Conformity?
Ask the dealer who first sold the car — if you are the original owner or the dealer cooperates, it may cost nothing. For an imported used car that route rarely works, and the PDF version through an authorised provider is the cheapest realistic option, starting at €124 net.
How long does it take to get a CoC?
From 3 working days (Hyundai) to 40 (Jaguar) for processing, plus 3–7 working days of shipping if you ordered the paper original. Express shipping cuts the courier stage, never the manufacturer’s stage.
Before you order
Have the 17-character VIN ready, know whether your registration office wants paper, and count the processing days backwards from your appointment. Those three things decide whether this goes smoothly or turns into a month of waiting.
If you are not sure your vehicle qualifies, check if your VIN qualifies before paying anything — the brand and the exact price for your car come back automatically. If your case is unusual, an old vehicle or a record the manufacturer disputes, send us the VIN through the contact form and we will tell you what is possible.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) 2018/858 — manufacturer’s obligation to provide the Certificate of Conformity free of charge with the vehicle, and the provisions allowing certificates of conformity as structured electronic data from 5 July 2026. EUR-Lex, CELEX 32018R0858.
- auto-coc.eu live catalogue — prices and processing times per brand, read via the WooCommerce Store API on 31 August 2026 (net, excl. VAT).