Can you import a Lunaz, Eagle or Twisted restomod into India?

The short answer

It depends on the age of the donor car, not the badge on the bonnet or the size of the cheque. Twisted, Overfinch, Theon Design, Lunaz and Eagle do not build a car from a blank sheet. They take an existing Land Rover, Jaguar, Porsche or Mini that was already registered somewhere, strip it and rebuild it. For Indian customs, that makes almost every one of these builds a used vehicle, however much work has gone into it. And India's rules for used vehicles have a hard age test built in.

Three routes, and a big gap in the middle

India allows a new vehicle in without local type approval if its CIF value is $40,000 or more, or its engine is bigger than 3,000cc petrol or 2,500cc diesel, according to the import policy summarised by the legal guide Ipleaders. But this route is for a car that has never been registered anywhere, which rules out almost every restomod on this beat.

Used cars get a separate route, but only if they are three years old or less from the date of manufacture, must land only through Mumbai port, need right hand drive, and need a roadworthiness certificate from VRDE or ARAI, per IndiaFilings' summary of the rule.

Then there is the vintage route. Since a February 2025 change, a car that is 50 years old or more can come in without an import licence at all, on a rolling basis, Autocar India reported. The cutoff was 1975 in 2025 and moves to 1976 in 2026. Only an "actual user" can bring one in, and resale is banned.

Anything older than three years but younger than fifty cannot be personally imported at all, outside the narrow Transfer of Residence window for someone who has lived abroad for more than two years and owned the car there, per Immihelp's summary, and even then the car cannot be resold for two years after.

Where the British builders actually land

Eagle's E-Types start from original sixties or early seventies Jaguar donor cars, according to restomod directory Maison Restomod and Eagle's own site. Those donors are now well past fifty, so they fall into the vintage route. Lunaz's electric Jaguar XK120 is built on a 1953 car, and its Range Rover Classic conversions use the first generation Range Rover built between 1970 and 1994, Robb Report has reported. An early seventies Range Rover Classic clears fifty years. A late eighties one does not.

Twisted's current inventory, by its own listings, runs on TD5 and Puma diesel engined classic Defenders, most of them first registered in the 1990s and 2000s. Theon Design's Porsche commissions use 964 donor cars built between 1989 and 1994. Both sit squarely in the gap: too old to be a used car under three years, too young to be vintage. Overfinch, Project Kahn and Urban Automotive mostly work on a current generation Range Rover or Defender that is only months old. Those can use the used car route, provided every other condition, right hand drive, Mumbai port, the roadworthiness certificate, is met.

What it actually costs

Budget 2025 cut the basic customs duty on a new car above $40,000 CIF from 125 percent to 70 percent, but added a new 40 percent Agriculture Infrastructure cess that takes most of that saving back, Autocar India reported.

For the vintage route, Autocar India's own reporting puts customs duty, GST and registration together at about 250 percent of the car's invoice value. That is before shipping, a UK agent's fee and whatever the restomod itself cost in pounds.

Ipleaders puts total duty on a used luxury car import at around 165 percent of CIF value, on top of which comes state road tax, which in Maharashtra and Karnataka already touches its top slab well before a Twisted or Overfinch price tag does.

Before you call a British workshop

Ask for the donor car's original registration date before you pay a deposit, not after. Confirm the build will be right hand drive, since India does not register left hand drive cars for private use. Budget for Mumbai port clearance only, a VRDE or ARAI certificate, and state road tax on top of customs. And if your donor car happens to be thirty or forty years old rather than three or fifty, no amount of paperwork gets it into India as a personal import right now.

Sources

• Budget 2025: customs duty on imported cars remains unchanged
• Import of cars made up to 1975 allowed
• How to Import luxury cars and bike in India?
• Import of Used Cars to India, Compliance and Conditions
• Importing Cars into India by NRIs
• Eagle, Maison Restomod
• About Eagle E-Types
• Twisted Automotive UK inventory
• Lunaz converts classic cars into the electric vehicles of the future