Explainer | What the EU’s extra tariffs on China’s electric vehicles mean for carmakers in both markets

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The provisional duties vary between 17 and 38 per cent depending on each carmaker’s level of cooperation with the European Commission’s anti-subsidy investigation

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Electric cars for export stacked at the international container terminal of Taicang Port in Suzhou, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province. Photo: AFP

Eric JiangandDaniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 4:59pm, 20 Jun 2024Updated: 11:16am, 21 Jun 2024

The European Union announced on June 12th that it would levy additional tariffs of up to 38 per cent on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), which could deal a blow to domestic EV companies.

Unlike the quadrupling of tariffs announced by the White House last month, whose impact appears to be minimal because so few Chinese-made EVs are sold in the US, the EU’s new levies are likely to inflict some pain as the bloc has long been considered a major destination for the country’s electric cars.

The 27 EU members, home to 450 million people, are poised to become China’s biggest automotive export destinations by 2030, according to a forecast by the Swiss bank UBS last year.

Chinese pure-electric cars accounted for a fifth of the electric vehicles sold in the EU in 2023, a report by Moody’s Ratings found.

Here is what you need to know about the curbs and what it means for the two economies.

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Chinese-made electric vehicles face additional EU import tariffs of up to 38%