Tesla is joining a group of automakers that includes BYD, SAIC, and Geely in suing the European Union as the EU implied duties on China-built electric vehicles.
Tesla operates a factory in China known as Gigafactory Shanghai that produces both domestic and exported vehicles. Tesla has focused on shipping many of the cars built in China to territories outside Asia, Europe being one of them.
However, political stakes are higher than ever as regions are attempting to keep manufacturing domestic in hopes that consumers will buy vehicles built at home. As a result, the EU’s Commission hit exporters with certain duty rates, Tesla’s being the lowest at just 8 percent.
However, other carmakers, like SAIC, were hit with 35 percent tariffs, causing an uproar and catalyzing this new lawsuit.
Politico first reported the inclusion of Tesla in the complaint, which occurred this week.
The EU Commission says it has compiled evidence in a year-long anti-subsidy investigation that Beijing underwrote the Chinese EV industry into its position as a global leader. It feels it has more of a leg to stand on than the U.S. and Canada, which applied 100 percent duties on EVs manufactured in China.
Olof Gill, the Commission’s trade spokesperson, said yesterday that they are “ready” for the suit:
“We’re ready. We’re a rules-based club here in the EU. If they want to take us to court, they can take us to court.”
Evidently, the suit’s main purpose is to neutralize the law that imposed the duties. If they are victorious, it could be the first step in retrieving the losses they felt from the tariffs being imposed.
There is also another group, the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Machinery and Electronics (CCCME), which has also reportedly filed a case.
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