The EU plans to register Chinese electric vehicles at customs, which may retrospectively impose taxes

According to Global Network quoting Reuters, the European Commission issued an emergency notice on March 5 local time, planning to start customs registration for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) imported from China.

According to the information on the official notice from the European Commission, the subjects of customs registration are electric vehicles from China with 9 seats or less, driven only by one or more motors.

Reuters reported that this is part of the EU's "anti-subsidy investigation" against Chinese electric vehicles. If the final investigation determines that Chinese electric vehicles have received so-called "unfair subsidies", the EU may impose "retrospective tariffs" on these registered import vehicles. The European Commission believes that if the volume of imports from China continues to grow at the current rate before the end of the investigation, EU manufacturers might suffer "irreparable losses". Therefore, it is "necessary" to register imported electric vehicles from China and prepare for possible retrospective measures.

Data shows that from October 2023 to January 2024, the EU imported a total of 177,839 Chinese electric vehicles, an increase of more than 10% in monthly imports compared to the previous period.

(Author: Kevin Wong)