Chinese electric carmakers raced to get EVs into the bloc ahead of the July 5 deadline when new EU tariffs went into effect, betting they would not face backdated duties.

But they may have miscalculated, with the European Commission saying that it will come to a decision in the fall on whether to make the duties retroactive from March.

As part of its investigation into whether Chinese automakers obtained improper subsidies, the European Commission required customs agencies of member countries to track all made-in-China EVs from March, which would give the EU executive the flexibility to retroactively apply the duties. This is a tactic aimed at deterring companies from flooding the market ahead of an expected tariff boost.

Despite that warning, the automakers still took the risk. Shortly after the Commission announced higher-than-anticipated duties on EVs in June, Chinese carmakers frantically put as many vehicles as possible onto container ships sailing to the EU.

  • cynthorpe@discuss.onlineEnglish
    53·
    3 months ago

    Instead of focusing all this energy on taxing cheap electric vehicles, maybe they could spend that time making cheap electric vehicles themselves

    • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      The CCP strategically cornered the market in more than a few critical areas for EV production. Individual Western firms are not able to compete with a well funded and coordinated effort by a state actor to control every stage of the production process.

      On top of that the real estate crisis China has caused local consumption to crater. The means that China is looking to the West for markets to dump their over capacity.

      No country is going to sit idly by while their industrial base is directly threatened especially in a critical area such as green tech. Especially by an openly hostile power such as China.