Several battery electric vehicle (BEV) buyers in Europe were surprised when the cars they wanted to purchase got more expensive. They shouldn't, considering that the European Union (EU) now charges "provisional countervailing duties" on electric cars imported from China on top of the 10% standard import tax. The surprise probably came from models they did not know were made in China, such as the Tesla Model Y, BMW iX3, or the Dacia Spring. The European Union states this is a way to protect "EU BEV producers," but is it?
To answer that question, you have to ask another one: who are these manufacturers? Let me rephrase that: are they those with factories installed in the EU territory or European companies, with headquarters there? It's crucial to set this straight, even if European politicians have already disclosed the definition they chose to follow without directly admitting that.
The European Commission (EC) conducted an investigation for nine months and came to the conclusion that automakers in China enjoyed unfair competitive advantages that ranged from inexpensive land for the factories to direct subsidies from the government. Add cheap loans and subsidized battery materials to the list. To make matters worse, we recently discovered that only two Chinese BEV makers are profitable, but I'll keep this discussion for another time.
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