Generally speaking, cars that are imported into the UK from outside the EU will not have EU type approval, and therefore a blanket VED rate is applied. If you wanted to have the vehicle tested for emissions this would require an Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) test, which you can read about here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65fc443765c...f However, these tests are expensive and would likely outweigh any saving you would make on a reduced VED rate.