On April 1, 2024, in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China, employees at the zero sports car factory of Chinese electric vehicle startup company worked on the new energy vehicle assembly line.
Shi Kuanbing | Visual China Group | Getty Images
The European Union said on Wednesday it would impose higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports, finding that Chinese electric vehicles “have benefited significantly from unfair subsidies” and posed a “threat of economic harm” to European electric vehicle manufacturers.
The EU said in a statement that it will impose a 38.1% tariff on battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufacturers that do not cooperate with the investigation, and impose a lower tariff of 21% on automakers in Asian countries that comply with the regulations but do not accept “sampling”.
BYD, China’s major pure electric vehicle manufacturer, was levied a 17.4% tariff, and Geely was levied a 20% tariff. The European Union also imposed a 38.1% tariff on automobile company SAIC Motor. All three producers are sampled in an ongoing EU investigation.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive agency, has preliminarily concluded that China’s pure electric vehicle value chain “benefits from unfair subsidies” and said that imposing “temporary countervailing duties” on pure electric vehicles is in the EU’s interests.
“The influx of subsidized Chinese imports at artificially low prices therefore poses a clear threat of foreseeable and imminent harm to EU industry,” the European Commission said.
In response to the EU’s statement, NIO said it was “unwavering” in its continued commitment to the electric vehicle market. “We strongly oppose using higher tariffs as a strategy to hinder normal global trade of electric vehicles. This approach hinders rather than promotes global environmental protection, emission reduction and sustainable development.”
This breaking news story is being updated.
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