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Green Tax engine bands
The Green Tax Surcharge is the simplest line in the stack — three bands, one measurement — and still the one most often mispriced, because the measurement is the engine's real displacement and the number on the boot lid is marketing.
The bands (from 1 July 2026, on CIF): under 2,000cc → 0% · 2,000–3,999cc → 2% · 4,000cc and above → 4%. Boundaries are exact: 2,000cc already pays 2%; 4,000cc already pays 4%. Exempt regardless of size: fully electric cars, mass-transit buses, locally manufactured vehicles.
The badge trap
Car badges round. Engines do not. A widely sold “4.0” V8 displaces 3,982cc — eighteen cubic centimetres under the 4% line, squarely in the 2% band. A “2.0” from one maker is 1,991cc (0% band); from another, 1,998cc (still 0%, two cc to spare); a “2.5” can be 2,494cc or 2,487cc (both 2%, comfortably). On a ₦12,000,000 car the difference between the 2% and 4% bands is ₦240,000 — real money, decided by a figure most buyers never look up. The checker applies the boundaries exactly; the VIN plate gives you the number to feed it.
The levy it renamed
The bands themselves are not new. The 2023 Fiscal Policy Measures charged the identical 0 / 2 / 4% structure as an Import Adjustment Tax levy on engines; the 2026 measures renamed it the Green Tax Surcharge and aligned its start with the rest of the July package. Two consequences follow. First, a pre-July 2026 car was not free of this charge — the old stack has the same line under its old name, which is why the comparator shows ₦240,000 in both columns for a 2,494cc car. Second, any guide that prices the Green Tax as a new 2026 cost added to the old stack is double-counting a rename. The levy that genuinely changed in 2026 was the NAC levy.
Exemptions, precisely
The exclusion list as reproduced from the measures names: vehicles below 2,000cc (exempt by band); vehicles of heading 87.02 — mass-transit buses; electric vehicles; and locally manufactured vehicles and their headings. Note what is absent: hybrids. A hybrid's exemption is sometimes assumed because the car has a battery; the measures do not grant one, and the calculators here price a hybrid by its engine size, with that stated on the result. The electric exemption carries its own conditions — they are set out in the electric car guide.
Questions
Which cars are exempt from the Green Tax Surcharge?
Fully electric cars, mass-transit buses (heading 87.02), locally manufactured vehicles, and — by the band structure itself — every car with an engine below 2,000cc. The exemption list is reproduced from the 2026 measures in the reporting of the circular. Hybrid cars are not on it: a hybrid pays by its engine size like any petrol or diesel car.
How do I find my car’s actual engine size?
From the VIN plate or the manufacturer’s specification for your exact version and year — not from the badge, the advert, or the model name. Displacements vary within a model line: the same badge can sit over a 1,991cc engine in one version and a 2,994cc engine in another, and those two cars fall in different Green Tax bands.