- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.org
- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.org
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54358560
The European Commission said on Thursday it was reviewing tariffs on Volkswagen’s electric vehicles built in China, which the automaker hopes could be replaced with an annual import quota and minimum price mechanism.
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“We can’t drop the tariffs on Chinese EVs. They’re built by skave labour!”
“But Chinese Volkswagen is ok”
BYD’s next marketing campaign could simply be screenshots of German auto manufacturer quotes at this point.
Almost all tariffs are to protect the local market. China heavily subsidizes their EV industry so China can get a big part of the global market. This is not good for the market. Another example is steel. China dumped so much on the market that almost every other steel manufacturer in the world had trouble getting rid of their product.
This is also why the following is part of the article:
The Commission said in April that it had agreed with China to look into setting minimum prices of Chinese-made EVs instead of tariffs, but it has insisted that any minimum prices would need to be as effective and enforceable as the tariffs. Minimum prices are fairer for China. They would get more money for their cars, but it would also make it so consumers don’t get persuaded by low prices. A healthy market that’s fair for all.
I’m guessing Volkswagen doesn’t really produce these kind of cheap EVs in China. Which is probably why they feel the tariffs are unfair for them.
And slave labor is probably not a big part of the whole story. Although I’m guessing in the case of Volkswagen the chances of slave labor are far lower too because the EU can punish them much harder than Chinese companies.
China heavily subsidizes their EV industry
They’ve mostly phased out the subsidies, and will increase the ev tax to 10% in 2028.
slave labor
lmao
I replied to a comment implying slave labor buddy. Don’t point at me.
“Slave labor” also means all kinds of other stuff like holding passports, offering housing but not enough money to get away from it, forcing extreme hours, etc.
From the article:
China has sent a clear signal that it is willing to pull the plug on subsidies for its electric vehicle industry
That is a huge difference to having mostly phased out subsidies.
It started phasing them out in 2022, they reach 0 in 2027
They are phasing out subsidies to buyers of EVs, but not the ones applying to Chinese exports of EVs. The Chinese even aknowledge that their susbidies created a massive oversupply, which means artifically low prices for them. That creates a huge problem for the European car industry, which did not get those subsidies.
ones applying to Chinese exports
That’s not a thing, if it was, exports would be cheaper than the same models on the domestic market. What is framed as subsidies is supporting the industry getting production up and and running.
There’s no overcapacity as evidenced by China only exporting a tiny fraction of their production, and at profitable prices.
Maybe you should actually read the article you linked. It clearly speaks about overcapacity.
Also China is by far the biggest car producer in the world making up a third of global production. The exports are also massive. Last year the exported 5.859 million vehicles and grew more then 19%. The only countries producing more cars then China exports(only exports) are the US, Japan and India. Also this up until September Chinas car exports grew by 14.8% compared to the same period last year. So that would overtake Indias total car production of last year.
