How to import vehicles from Excel

If you’re starting fresh with Movcar — or migrating from a spreadsheet, another fleet system, or just a folder of paperwork — the Excel import is the fastest way to get every vehicle into the platform. Done right, you can load hundreds of vehicles in a couple of minutes.

The whole workflow is three steps, in this order:

1. Export Movcar’s vehicle file first — this gives you both the data structure and (if you already have vehicles) the existing data in one ready-to-edit spreadsheet.
2. Copy your data into that exported file, keeping every column and its formatting untouched. Don’t create a new file from scratch.
3. Import the edited file back into Movcar.

The rest of this guide explains each step, with the catch-points most users hit on their first try.

⚠ The most common mistake — building a brand-new spreadsheet “from the template” with your own column order, your own headers, or extra columns. The import maps every column by the technical IDs in row 2 of the exported file. If row 2 moves, gets renamed, or is missing, the import fails — or worse, writes your data into the wrong fields. Always use the file Movcar gave you as the destination.

Step 1 — Export Movcar’s vehicle file first

This is the step most people skip — and the reason their imports later fail. Don’t build a fresh spreadsheet, even if you already have your vehicle data in another file. Export Movcar’s file first; that becomes the destination you’ll paste into.

From the left-hand menu, click My Fleet → Vehicles. In the top-right toolbar, you’ll see three buttons: Import data, Export data, and + Add.

Click Export data. A modal opens with a single dropdown — Type — offering three formats:

• XLSX — modern Excel format. Recommended for most users.
• XLS — older Excel format. Use only if your team is on a very old version of Excel.
• CSV — plain text. Useful if you’re editing in something other than Excel (Python, Numbers, Google Sheets, etc.).

Pick XLSX, click Run Action, and your browser downloads the file.

💡 Tip — Even if your fleet is empty, run the export anyway. You’ll get a file with just the two header rows (see below) — a clean, Movcar-issued template that you can paste your data into.

📌 Keep the file as Movcar produced it — same number of columns, same column order, same cell formatting. Open it, paste your data into rows 3+, save. That’s it. Resist the urge to “clean up” the headers, add a sheet, freeze panes, or hide columns — anything that disturbs row 1 or row 2 will break the import.

Step 2 — Understand the spreadsheet structure

Open the downloaded file. You’ll see 72 columns organized into seven logical groups (Identity, Insurance, Engine, Driver, Leasing, etc.) and two header rows that you must not touch.

⚠ Critical — Do not delete, rename, or rearrange the first two rows. The import maps every column by what’s in row 2 — change it and the import will fail or, worse, put data in the wrong fields.

The special first column

The very first column is labelled “Do not edit or modify this column! It is used to identify the vehicle…” — and that’s exactly right:

• For new vehicles — leave this column empty. The import creates a new vehicle.
• For existing vehicles — leave the value Movcar already put there. The import updates that vehicle in place rather than creating a duplicate.

This is how one spreadsheet handles both insert and update at the same time.

Step 3 — Copy your data into the exported file

Now you take your existing vehicle list (wherever it is — another spreadsheet, an export from your old system, a Word doc, whatever) and transfer it into the exported file you just downloaded, one column at a time, starting at row 3 (or, if you have existing Movcar vehicles already in there, the first empty row after them).

⚠ Do not paste a whole table from another file — if you copy-paste from a spreadsheet that has its own headers, formatting, or extra columns, you’ll either overwrite Movcar’s header rows or end up with mismatched columns. Copy values one column at a time so each value lands under the right Movcar header.

Each row from row 3 onwards is one vehicle. At minimum, fill in:

• Vehicle brand (column 3, field brand) — e.g. “TESLA”, “BMW”.
• Vehicle model (column 4, field model) — e.g. “Cybertruck”, “X5”.
• Registration number (no spaces) (column 6, field license_plate) — spaces are stripped on save anyway, so type “WAW567P” not “WAW 567 P”.

Everything else is optional, but the more you fill in, the more useful your fleet record. Common high-value fields:

Constrained values (enums)

Several columns only accept specific values, and the valid list is written right into the column header. Examples:

• Main fuel: biodiesel, natural_gas, diesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, lng, lpg, methanol, petrol, synthetic_fuel, other.
• Euro Norm: euro_1, euro_2, euro_3, euro_4, euro_5, euro_6a, euro_6b, euro_6c, euro_6d_temp, euro_6d, euro_6e, euro_6e_bis, euro_6e_bis_fcm, euro_7.
• Driver status: in_trial, employed, contracted, in_notice_period, left.
• Vehicle editing in the mobile app?: 1 for Yes, 0 for No.

Type any of these values exactly as written (lowercase, with underscores). Anything else and the import will reject that row.

References to other entities

A few columns expect values that already exist elsewhere in Movcar:

• Insurance company names (MTPL and CASCO) — “only use companies registered with Movcar”. Type the company name exactly as it appears in your Movcar account.
• Mobile app code — only add a code if it has already been generated in Movcar. New codes can’t be created via import.
• Driver fields — first/last name, email, phone, etc. If the driver doesn’t exist yet, Movcar will create them as part of the import.

💡 Tip — If you have many vehicles to import and you’re not sure what’s already in Movcar, do one full Export first. The current state of every linked entity (insurance companies, drivers, fuel cards) is visible in the exported rows.

Step 4 — Save the file and click Import data

Save your edited file. Keep the same format you exported in (XLSX, XLS, or CSV) — don’t Save As to a different format. If you exported XLSX, save as XLSX; if you exported CSV, save as CSV. Mixed formats sometimes strip cell types or escape characters in ways the import can’t recover.

Back in the Vehicles list, click Import data in the top-right. A modal opens asking for a file:

Click Choose File, pick your edited spreadsheet, then click Run Action. Movcar processes the file row by row.

Step 5 — What happens next

If everything’s clean, you’ll see a green toast in the bottom-right: “The action was executed successfully.” Reload the Vehicles list — every row in your spreadsheet is now either a new vehicle (rows where column 1 was empty) or an updated one (rows where column 1 had an ID).

If something’s wrong, Movcar reports an error toast and rejects the import without partial-applying. Common causes:

What’s next?

Now that your fleet is imported, you’ll probably want to:

• Upload documents to your vehicles — registration, leasing contract, the actual scans of insurance policies. The import handles metadata (dates, numbers, company names), not file attachments.
• Connect drivers to the mobile app — set the App Connection Code for each driver so they can pair their phone.
• Schedule a service plan — apply a recurring maintenance plan to all the vehicles you just imported.

If you only need to fix a handful of vehicles, the inline editor on the Vehicles list is usually faster than re-importing — see How to edit vehicle details.