acf domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/ecg/ecgassociationdev/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121Automotive News Europe — 2024-06-18
Automotive Industry
Reciprocal measures by China may hurt VW, Mercedes and BMW, which rely heavily on sales in the world's No. 1 market.
The German business chamber in China said the European Union should invest to become more competitive instead of hiking tariffs on China-made electric vehicles, adding to Berlin’s efforts to avert or soften the trade curbs.
The call comes after the EU decided to impose additional tariffs on BEVs shipped from China, taking levies to as much as 48%.
This affects Chinese automakers including BYD, Geely and SAIC, who were accused of distorting the market through state subsidies. Western automakers that export China-built EVs to Europe including Tesla, BMW and Renault's Dacia will also have to to pay higher import duties.
“Tariffs as suggested now by the EU will not increase the competitiveness of the automotive industry,” said Maximilian Butek, executive director of the German Chamber of Commerce in East China.
“You cannot protect the automotive industry only in the European Union if they are all over the world,” he said at a press launch for the chamber’s business confidence survey.
The German government is working to prevent the EU’s new tariffs on Chinese-built EVs from coming into force — or at least soften them if a full halt is not possible.
Beijing has threatened retaliation across agriculture, aviation and cars with large engines. Any tit-for-tat measures may hurt German manufacturers including Volkswagen Group, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which rely heavily on sales in the world’s biggest auto market.
Butek said German companies had not complained about Chinese subsidies in the EV sector prior to the EU investigation.
The top challenge for them is price pressure, according to the chamber’s survey conducted late May. This is a result of overcapacity, Butek said. “But our companies are quite aligned on that — that they only can survive those times when they become more competitive,” he added.
Three quarters of German companies in China reported overcapacities in their industries, with 20% saying it’s substantial, the survey found.
Most saw overcapacity as a recent phenomenon. About half said they started seeing overcapacity in 2023 and 35% said it happened in the last five years.
The survey also found that German companies have a slightly more positive outlook on China compared with 2023, though fewer companies planned to increase their investment in the short term.
About 38% of respondents expected a worsening outlook for their industries in 2024 compared with 2023, a decrease from 52% when companies were asked the same question in September 2023.
Slightly more than half are planning to boost investment over the next two years, down from 61% in 2023.