The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, announced today that Chinese-built electric vehicles exported to the EU are to be hit with additional duty rates as high as 38.1% in reaction to investigations concluding that EVs in China benefit from “unfair subsidisation”.
Less than a month after Washington announced plans to quadruple duties for Chinese EVs to 100%, Brussels said it would combat excessive subsidies with additional tariffs ranging from 17.4% to 38.1%, on top of the standard 10% car duty. That takes the highest overall rate to close to 50%.
The provisional decision follows an investigation into China’s state support for electric vehicle makers. The European Commission launched the probe in October to establish whether Chinese EV prices are artificially low because of subsidies and so hurt European carmakers.
The Commission said its investigation had provisionally concluded that the EV industry in China “benefits from unfair subsidization, which is causing a threat of economic injury.”
The individual duties the Commission would apply to the three sampled Chinese producers would be:
• BYD: 17,4%;
• Geely: 20%; and
• SAIC: 38,1%.
Other BEV producers in China, which cooperated in the investigation but have not been sampled, would be subject to the following weighted average duty: 21%.
All other BEV producers in China which did not cooperate in the investigation would be subject to the following residual duty: 38,1%.
