Automotive News Europe — 2024-08-30
Automotive Industry
Chinese automakers have been hit by increased EU tariffs and changes in EV subsidies.
Chinese automakers registered fewer electric cars across Europe in July 2024, as new tariffs amplified the impact of a broader slump in EV sales.
Brands including SAIC’s MG and BYD accounted for 9.9% of EV registrations in the region, down from 10.2% in July 2023, according to researcher Dataforce.
Overall demand for EVs continued to weaken after Germany, Europe’s largest auto market, removed incentives late 2023.
Chinese automakers and their European counterparts that import battery-electric cars into the European Union have been scrambling to adjust to the introduction of new tariffs on 5 July 2024 that raised duties on Chinese-made EVs to as high as 48%.
The provisional levies have stoked trade tensions and led to retaliatory probes — China on Thursday, 29 August 2024, said it found evidence of the dumping of brandy from the EU, though it held off on imposing tariffs for now.
The EU’s duties on EVs are set to be made permanent in November 2024, pending the outcome of trade talks between Brussels and Beijing.
The European Commission said state-owned SAIC’s responses to its probe were “found to be highly deficient” and slapped it with the maximum duties.
The MG owner saw a 38% drop-off in European registrations in July from a year earlier, and an even bigger 60% slide from June, according to researcher JATO Dynamics.
SAIC pressed more than 13,000 electric MGs into the hands of European dealers during June 2024, ahead of the tariff deadline.
In all, Chinese companies registered fewer than 14,000 EVs across Europe in July 2024, down from more than 23,000 in June, and a 9.7% decline from July 2023, according to Dataforce.
Chinese automakers rushed to beat the tariff deadline, said Matthias Schmidt, an independent auto analyst based in Germany.
That left them with fewer EVs to sell in July 2024.
BYD doubled its European presence in July from a year earlier, though China’s biggest automaker posted a 5.5% sequential drop, according to JATO.
The company is building plants in Hungary and Turkey that, once operating, will allow it to sidestep the new tariffs.
Polestar, the Swedish EV maker partly owned by Chinese billionaire Li Shufu, is not counted among Chinese brands by JATO, though Dataforce includes it in its market calculations.
The company has begun producing its Polestar 3 in the US, while Xpeng, Volkswagen Group’s Chinese partner, told Bloomberg News this month (August 2024) that it’s seeking a European manufacturing site.
Incentives — or their absence — continue to play a dominant role in EV sales.
In Germany, EV sales declined 37% in July 2024 and are now down 20% year-to-date, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
In Belgium and Denmark, where EV incentives remain in place, demand for the cars continued to grow.
Registrations also rose in the UK in July 2024. The new Labour government is considering whether to join the EU in issuing tariffs, though has not made a final decision.