Yesterday, a report came out claiming that the majority of EU member states are in favor of raising tariffs on Chinese EVs. The tariffs will come into effect by October 31 and will be added on top of the currently existing 10% flat tax rate. The policy has a five-year time frame.
But the tariffs won’t be equal for everyone. For example, BYD gets 17% duty, Geely gets 18.8% additional tax and Tesla sees only a 7.8% rate. SAIC, on the other hand, is hit the hardest with 35.3%. Even though Tesla isn’t a Chinese automaker, a large portion of its vehicles sold in Europe are imported from China.
Not a good sign for China-based EV company. In an article by Bloomberg, “Beijing has signaled it’s ready to unleash retaliatory tariffs as high as 25% on imports of cars made in the EU with large engines — which would affect Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and BMW the most.”
Not just with European EVs, being the largest market for almost “anything,” China could actually impose higher tariffs on “other” products that are coming from EU and like that the Bloomberg article said, it could restrict Chinese tourist from going to EU, all together.
This is the official statement from EU;
Today, the European Commission’s proposal to impose definitive countervailing duties on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China has obtained the necessary support from EU Member States for the adoption of tariffs. This represents another step towards the conclusion of the Commission’s anti-subsidy investigation.
In parallel, the EU and China continue to work hard to explore an alternative solution that would have to be fully WTO-compatible, adequate in addressing the injurious subsidization established by the Commission’s investigation, monitorable and enforceable.
A Commission Implementing Regulation including the definitive findings in the investigation must be published in the Official Journal by 30 October 2024, at the latest.
