欧盟对中国采取行动Vs Flooding European Market

The European Commission has launched an investigation to find out whether tariffs should be imposed to protect European manufacturers from an influx of cheaper Chinese-built EVs benefitting from subsidies, reportsReuters.

The Commission has 13 months to assess whether tariffs would be helpful. The publication reports that this is the governing body's largest case against China in nearly a decade. It's worth noting that this isn't aimed at only Chinese cars but all EVs built in the country and exported to Europe. For example, this would impact the Chinese-built TeslaModel 3and several models from other European brands, such as Volvo and BMW. The latter even has plans to build its next-generationNeue Klasse vehicles in China.

"Global markets are now flooded with cheaper electric cars," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "And their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies," she added.

China's Chamber of Commerce to the European Commission has said it is concerned about the investigation and noted that the competitive pricing and advantage were unrelated to any subsidies. The organization is also pleading with the EU to examine Chinese EVs objectively.

The country's Ministry of Commerce believes the investigation has the potential to weaken China-EU relations, describing it as a "naked protectionist act that will seriously disrupt and distort the global automotive industry and supply chain, including the EU, and will have a negative impact on China-EU economic and trade sanctions," said the Ministry in a statement.

In another piece,Reutersreports that Germany's Economy Minister is all for the investigation into electric vehicles produced in China. "This is about unfair competition; it's not about keeping efficient, cheap cars out of the European market."