TMTPost -- Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have to take actions in response to the additional tariffs on EV exports from China imposed by the European Union.

Credit：Tesla

Tesla Inc. said Wednesday it has raised prices of Model 3 cars in European countries including Germany, the Netherlands and Spain by about 1,500 euros (US$1,622), a response to recent EU tariffs. The U.S. EV giant, which makes the Model 3 model in Gigafatory Shanghai, had warned last month it could hike prices due to upcoming tariffs.

Nio Inc., the Shanghai-based EV maker, has signaled it has to lift prices right after announcement of the European Commission’s decision to push forward with the tariffs. Nio said it might adjusted prices of its cars in Europe as a result of the EU decision.

MG, a brand under China’s state-owned automaker SAIC Motor, also hinted at price increases. A spokesman for MG in France said the automaker had enough vehicles in stock to last until November without increasing prices, referring in particular to the MG4 model. For the moment, MG was not planning any price action on its car lineup in the country, said Andrea Bartolomeo, MG's country manager for Italy.

Renault's budget is not planning to raise prices of the Spring imported from China in the short term. The brand could raise its prices at a later date, but not in a sudden or significant way, a Dacia spokesperson said.

The European Commission announced last Thursday it imposed provisional countervailing duties of up to 37.6%, on top of the ordinary BEV import duty of 10%, on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China. The executive arm of the EU concluded through an anti-subsidy investigation that the BEV value chain in China benefits from unfair subsidization, which is causing a threat of economic injury to EU BEV producers.

Specifically, the additional individual duties on three sampled Chinese EV makers, would be 17.4% for BYD, 19.9% for Geely and 37.6% for SAIC. That means the EU decided to levy a little bit less duties on Geely and SAIC-made EVs since its pre-disclosed proposed rates are 20% and 38.1%, respectively, while BYD, China’s largest EV manufacturer, faces the same tariff rate as EU’s original proposal disclosed on June 12.

 According to a statement of the European Commission , other BEV producers in China, which cooperated in the investigation but have not been sampled, are subject to the 20.8% weighted average duty, marginally downgraded from the Commission’s original proposed 21%, while all other BEV producers in China that did not cooperate in the investigation face an extra duty of 37.6%, compared with the original proposed 38.1%.  

The European Commission suggested the long-term definitive duties will be effective no later than four months ago, if approved by EU countries. All the abovementioned provisional duties are applied for a maximum duration of four months starting from July 5. Within the four-month timeframe, a final decision must be taken on definitive duties, through a vote by EU Member States, and when adopted, this decision would make the duties definitive for a period of five years, the Commission said.

Tesla was classed as cooperating with the EU's investigation and so was given a 20.8% tariff. But the European Commission said the company may receive a recalculation of its rate at the definitive stage following a substantial request.