EU’s Tariffs Cannot Stop the Development of Chinese EVs

25 October 2024 05:44 pm Views - 88

A few days ago, the European Union conducted a final vote on whether to impose a five-year countervailing duty on electric vehicles imported from China. The voting result was 10 votes in favor, 5 votes against, and 12 abstentions, and passed the bill to impose final countervailing duties on electric vehicles originated from China.

With the advent of the new energy era, the world's major countries are committed to the development of new energy vehicles, countries compete with each other, technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, China seems to play a leading role in this regard, China's new energy vehicles have completed the transformation from the chaser to the leader, and the arrival of the new energy era has also made China's new energy vehicle brand see the opportunity to go global. However, after seeing the growing strength of China's new energy vehicles, the EU finally couldn't sit still.

In fact, the EU's tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles had already begun to show signs as early as October last year, and it launched a countervailing investigation into Chinese electric vehicles. According to the plan at the time, the European Union will propose to impose a 17% tariff on BYD Auto, an 18.8% tariff on Geely Auto, and a 35.3% tariff on SAIC Motor on the basis of the original 10% ordinary import tariff. Although the voting result at that time was not the final tax plan, this move is undoubtedly the beginning of mutual competition between the two sides in this important field.

Is the European market important to Chinese new energy vehicle brands? Of course, it is important that Europe is not only the birthplace of automobiles, but also most European countries are also developed countries. If Chinese new energy vehicle brands can gain a firm foothold in the European market, it means that they have been recognized by the whole world. However, China's current export direction of electric vehicles is still mainly in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America, and it is simply unable to further enhance its voice in the global market.

Despite this, the EU's grudge against Chinese electric vehicles still exists, because in 2023, the EU will account for 482,000 of the 1.203 million electric vehicles exported by China, which gives the EU the idea of imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, and the essence behind it is that European local brands are not performing well in the new energy market and want to win more time for local brands by imposing tariffs. The same is true for the purpose of imposing a 100% tariff on China electric vehicles, including the United States and Canada.

But can local European brands really stand up in the new energy market in five years? What you need to know is that the involution of China's new energy vehicle market has reached unprecedented height, and the replacement cycle of new energy vehicles is even shorter than that of mobile phones. On the other hand, the traditional car brands represented by local European automobile manufacturers are still adhering to the industry standard of "every five years for a generation, every three years for a facelift", and in terms of price, the pricing of new energy vehicles in Europe is generally higher than that of fuel vehicles. On the contrary, in China's domestic auto market, the price of new energy vehicles has been cheaper than fuel vehicles, and at the same time, in the two major fields of intelligent cockpit and smart driving, it has also achieved a comprehensive lead over European local automobile manufacturers. If you want to let European automobile manufacturers catch up with Chinese brands in the field of new energy in just five years, there will undoubtedly be great difficulties behind it.

At the beginning, it took China 30 to 40 years to catch up with European automobile manufacturers in the fuel vehicle market. It is basically unrealistic for European automobile manufacturers to achieve a breakthrough in new energy vehicles within five years. What's more, judging from the current fierce competition in China's new energy vehicle market, China's new energy vehicles are bound to have a greater breakthrough in five years, and the gap will only be widened. It is believed that China's new energy vehicles will certainly win the recognition of the global market.