Subsidy Investigation Sent China’s EV Exports to the EU Plunging by 20%

Chinese EV exports to the European Union slumped by 19.6% in January and February 2024 compared to the same period last year as the EU continues its investigation into whether China’s subsidies are giving its auto manufacturers an unfair advantage over other EV makers.

In the first two months of 2024, China exported around 75,600 EVs to the EU, according to official Chinese customs data reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday.   

In October, the EU launched anti-subsidy investigations into EU imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China to determine whether BEV value chains in China benefit from illegal subsidization and “whether this subsidisation causes or threatens to cause economic injury to EU BEV producers.”

The findings of the investigation, which is expected to be completed by the autumn of 2024, will “establish whether it is in the EU's interest to remedy the effects of the unfair trade practices found by imposing anti-subsidy duties on imports of battery electric vehicles from China,” the European Commission said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the Union Address in September that “global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars. And their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies.”

“This is distorting our market,” von der Leyen added.

Earlier this month, the European Commission made imports of new battery electric vehicles from China subject to registration, “so that measures may subsequently be applied against those imports from the date of such registration.”

The EU probe into the Chinese subsidies is ongoing and set to conclude by November, but the bloc could impose tariffs as early as in July.

Announcing the registration of China-originated EVs, the Commission also said that as regards subsidies, it “has at its disposal sufficient evidence tending to show that imports of the product concerned from the PRC are being subsidised.”  

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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