Brussels rejected a proposal by the Chinese government for imported electric vehicles made in China to be sold at a minimum price of 30,000 euros ($32,946), sources said, a move Beijing hoped would avert EU tariffs being imposed next month.
The European Commission said it had dismissed minimum price offers from EV makers in China a month ago as part of an anti-subsidy investigation that has thrown Beijing and the European Union into their biggest trade dispute in a decade.
Electric cars cost on average less than half as much in China as they do in Europe and the United States, according to 2023 figures from data firm JATO Dynamics. The country’s carmakers benefit from a range of cost advantages – from local access to raw materials and batteries, to heavy subsidies from Beijing.
The average retail price of a battery-electric car in China was around 32,000 euros ($35,126.40) in the first half of 2023, including models such as BYD’s Seagull that sell for under 10,000 euros. By contrast, the average retail price of a battery electric car in Europe was 66,000 euros.
In rejecting the Chinese proposal, Brussels said at the time that it was not only about the prices carmakers charge for their China-made EVs, but also the subsidies they received producing them and removing the impact of such support payments.
The Commission had declined to provide details of the offers, by which makers of EVs in China pledged to respect certain pricing thresholds to avoid flooding the European market with cheap vehicles the bloc says local rivals cannot compete with.
