EU to impose 9% duty on Tesla electric cars made in China

The European Union plans to impose an additional 9 percent duty on Tesla cars imported from China. This was reported by Reuters.

The European Commission has released a draft decision on the introduction of final tariffs on electric vehicles supplied by China.

According to the decision, the EU has set a reduced rate of 9% for Tesla—lower than the 20.8% announced in July. Tesla requested a recalculation of its rate based on specific subsidies, according to the European Commission.

The EU still believes that Chinese electric vehicle production has benefited from heavy subsidies and has proposed final duties of up to 36.3%. 

This is slightly lower than the maximum provisional duty of 37.6% that the commission set in July for companies that did not cooperate with the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation. Tesla was among the companies that cooperated with the EU.

The European Commission said it had sent a team to Tesla’s facilities in China to check what subsidies the firm had received. Brussels concluded that Tesla receives fewer subsidies from China compared to the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers it investigated.

In August, China filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the European Union’s plans to impose tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

This step followed the US decision to sharply increase duties on a number of Chinese goods.