While the investigation into subsidies granted by the government to Chinese manufacturers continues, Europe faces a problem. Indeed, some brands take far too long to respond to investigators’ requests.
More and more Chinese manufacturers are trying their luck in Europe. And that does not please Brussels which wishes to protect its automobile industry.
An investigation at a standstill
The European Union recently unveiled a series of measures to counter the invasion of these Chinese brands, while it also plans to further increase customs duties.
The objective is to dissuade manufacturers from exporting their electric cars to us. And, why not, encourage them to build factories in Europe.
The EU opened a major investigation last year, directly accusing Asian manufacturers. Brussels believes that the latter benefit from subsidies awarded by the Chinese government.
The goal ? Allow them to display very attractive prices for European motorists, in order to better compete with brands already well established on the Old Continent. Obviously to the detriment of the latter, who therefore suffer from competition deemed unfair.
If the Chinese government reacted strongly to the accusations and claimed not to have been consulted as part of this investigation, certain manufacturers decided to calm things down.
This is particularly the case of BYD which has said it is ready to collaborate with the European authorities. While the latter claim to have proof of the accusations she makes against the Middle Kingdom.
But where are we, several months after the start of this great affair? Well, things have, in fact, made little progress, at least with certain brands.
This is what the American media indicates Politico which claims that a handful of Chinese manufacturers would not be not decided to collaborate with Brussels as part of this investigation.
This would be precisely the case for BYD, quite surprisingly, and the firm has just launched its new Seal U in the country. This manufacturer would not be the only one in this case, quite the contrary. Since Geely, which notably owns Volvo, Polestar and Lotus, would also be in the same scenario, but also SAIC (MG).
Insufficient information
The latter is the Chinese group behind MG as well as IM Motors, whose last two cars we discovered at the last Geneva Motor Show.
The European Union would have sent several letters to these different manufacturers Chinesein order to ask them to collaborate and answer questions, but without success.
For the moment, these requests have remained unanswered, while the American media indicates that these reminders are not only reminders, they are also warnings. For good reason, Brussels could further tighten its policy against Chinese cars, particularly in terms of customs.
Currently, customs duties are 10%. They should therefore increase to 25%, but this is not yet enough to slow down manufacturers such as BYD, which have sufficient resources to counter this threat.
By cutting back on its margins which remain higher than Tesla, among others. Particularly in Europe, where profits are even higher, due to higher prices.
For its part, France is acting on its own scale by having removed the ecological bonus for cars produced in China, such as the Tesla Model 3, the Dacia Spring or the MG4, among others.