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Find out if an EUR 1 form can be issued for your car

In order for an EUR 1 form to be issued for a vehicle or other goods, certain criteria must be met. The vehicle must have been manufactured in a country that has a free trade agreement with Switzerland, e.g. in an EU or EFTA country. It is therefore advisable to first check in which country your vehicle was produced. Below you can find a guide on how to find the origin of a vehicle.

This is how you find out where your vehicle was produced

Vehicles are not always produced where it first seems. For example, some models from the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota are not manufactured in Japan, as might be expected, but at production sites in France, Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Portugal. Hence, an EUR 1 could be issued for these cars, as long as all other criteria are also met. On the other hand, there are models from German car manufacturers that are manufactured in the USA, Russia and Asia, which means customs preference does not apply.

 

If you order an EUR 1 for your vehicle, you should make sure it qualifies for preferential origin. This is the case if the car was manufactured in an EU country or another country with which Switzerland has a free trade agreement, and if all other conditions for preferential treatment are fulfilled. The easiest way to find out the country of origin is to use a manufacturer's certificate of origin. On the certificate of origin, the car manufacturer states the production country. If you do not have the certificate of origin, the vehicle registration document can be used to give you hints on where your vehicle was likely to be manufactured.

Determine the country of origin based on the vehicle registration document

In order to do this, you need the chassis number, which is also called VIN and vehicle identification number. It can be found in the Swiss vehicle registration document on the right side under section 23. Below is an example of how you can find out the country of production of your vehicle in just a few steps.

 

1. Find the chassis number in the Swiss vehicle registration document. For an Audi, for example, it looks like this: WAU ZZZ 8P0 DA04 7610

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2. Look at the first digit. This is part of the world manufacturer code and provides information about the place of production.

 

3. If the first letter is between S and Z your vehicle was produced in Europe. You can find the exact country by looking at the second letter (except W, W means the car was made in Germany). In the table below you can find the production country for your vehicle.

4. If you cannot find your vehicle, it was most likely not produced in the EU. Contact us if you are unsure. X stands for Russia. Geographically, Russia is part of Europe. However, there is no free trade agreement between Russia and Switzerland, so no EUR 1 can be issued for cars produced in Russia.

 

5. From the example we can see that the Audi with chassis no. WAU ZZZ 8P0 DA04 7610 was manufactured in Germany. The first letter is a W, which according to the list above stands for Germany. An EUR1 could therefore be issued for this Audi, provided all other conditions are also met.

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Here are some more examples:

 

A Volvo has the following chassis number: YV1 DZ8 3A4 D239 2787. From the list above it appears that YV is in the YS-YW category and was therefore produced in Sweden.

In a vehicle registration document for a Toyota, the following chassis no. is specified: SB1 ED7 6L0 0E10 7432. The first two letters, SB, are at the top of the list in the SA-SM category. This indicated the Toyota was made in the UK.

In the vehicle registration document for a Renault, the following chassis no. is indicated: VF1 5R4 00E 5252 2984. Looking at the list, we can see that the first two letters, VF, are in the VF-VR category. Thus, the Renault was built in France.

Provided all other conditions are met, an EUR1 could be issued for all vehicles in the examples as all production countries are in the EU. If you need help to determine the production location of your vehicle, please feel free to contact us. If you are sure that your car is entitled to preferential treatment, you can also order your EUR1 right here.

 

Please note that it is possible to determine the country of origin based on the vehicle registration document. However, in order to be able to prove the country of origin at customs, it is advisable to carry a certificate of origin from the manufacturer with you when you export the car. Further information on certificates of origin can be found here.

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