China takes aim at reputation for cheap exports with EV permits

China takes aim at reputation for cheap exports with EV permits

Automotive News Europe — 2025-09-30

Automotive Industry

China’s requirement that automakers obtain permits to export electric vehicles intensifies a push to tighten control over the sprawling industry and help the country fend off accusations that it’s flooding the global market with cheap cars, according to analysts.

From the start of next year, automakers will require export licenses for EVs, bringing them in line with existing rules for gasoline and hybrid vehicles. The move is designed to restrict the export of low-quality products, prevent dumping and drive companies to compete on technology rather than price, Cui Dongshu, secretary general for the China’s Passenger Car Association, wrote in a WeChat post on Sept. 27.

The new rules underscore the intense scrutiny China’s car market is under as Beijing looks to more closely manage what it describes as the “healthy development” of the industry and curb ‘involution’ — a term used to describe intense competition that yields diminishing returns — across a raft of sectors.

So far, officials have cracked down on a long-running domestic price war that has pushed some automakers to the brink and ordered homegrown automakers to pay their suppliers faster. The push into regulating exports extends that control over more of the supply chain while simultaneously giving a nod to the surge in overseas shipments that has been a source of tensions with major trading partners like the European Union, the U.S. and Canada.

“I suspect that it’s due to trade relationships, especially with Europe, so these might help manage accusations of anti-dumping in future. It will also force companies to be more careful about capacity expansion,” said Xin-Yao Ng, a fund manager at Aberdeen Investments. “If it does lead to more careful capacity expansion, then it will be a good step for domestic market as well. If companies are still expanding aggressively and starting to find it hard to export, then they might instead be even more aggressive on the domestic market.”

The move could also help efforts to stamp out ‘zero-mileage’ used cars — where automakers offload vehicles to dealers or traders who then sell the essentially new cars at significantly lower prices, allowing automakers to book sales and meet targets. The practice can also see companies complete fraudulent paperwork to claim trade-in subsidies handed out by governments to encourage consumption.

Still, analysts say it’s unlikely established EV players such as BYD, Geely and SAIC will have issues obtaining the required permits and the government would not be looking to restrict exports given weakness in the Chinese economy.

Unclear how the permits will affect BMW, others in China

It’s also unclear how the move might affect business for Western automakers, which export EVs from plants they operate in China. BMW, which is producing electric Mini Cooper and Aceman models in China for Europe with its partner Great Wall has said that as a foreign automaker, it has always had to apply for export licenses. It does not expect a restriction on its business in the country.

Most major Chinese automakers “should have no issue obtaining newly required export permits for their battery-electric cars,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Joanna Chen said in a note. “The new export rule is part of China’s broader efforts to tighten oversight on EVs’ product quality and long-term development just as fierce competition forces most automakers to adopt massive cost reduction.”

China exported 1.5 million EVs and hybrids in the first eight months of this year, up 87 percent from the same period last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. That is despite tariffs in the EU, its major market. In a sign of optimism about prospects for Chinese cars in the region, BYD just named four new executives in Germany to bolster sales.