China EVs still driving for EU’s protected markets

The European Union (EU) remains an attractive market for China’s automakers even after the bloc imposed 17-38% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) earlier this month, said a Hong Kong-based prominent academic.

“The competition of the Chinese EV market is quite fierce as local automakers are cutting prices,” Fan Di, an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, told Asia Times in an interview. “Chinese EV makers need to go overseas to find places where they can utilize their production capacity and expand.”

As the EU’s new tariffs are significantly lower than the 100% tariff imposed by the US in May, Chinese EV firms can still survive in the EU, either by absorbing the new tariffs or opening new plants in the region, Fan said.

Since the EU started imposing provisional tariffs on Chinese EVs on July 4, Beijing has initiated an anti-dumping investigation into the EU’s pork products and accelerated its ongoing probe of European brandy.

It has also started an investigation to see whether the EU’s anti-subsidy probes into Chinese makers of trains, solar panels, wind power products and security equipment legally constitute trade barriers.

Chinese officials and auto firms said they will try to resolve the matter through negotiations with their EU counterparts. If the two sides fail to reach a compromise, the provisional tariffs will become permanent in November.

Reuters reported that Germany’s Ministry of Economy did not make a decision during the European Commission’s non-binding vote on Monday over the imposition of tariffs on Chinese EVs. Spain, France and Italy are reportedly backing the proposed duties.

“Chinese EV firms won’t give up the European market as people in the bloc make more money