EU tariffs: Western electric cars less common from China

Return of the Electric Cars Automakers are Bringing their Electric Car Production Back to the EU

2026-07-13 Source: dpa | Translated by AI 1 min Reading Time

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Since the European Union imposed tariffs on electric cars from Chinese production, the manufacturing of electric cars by primarily Western manufacturers has been increasingly shifting back to the EU ...

After the EU imposed tariffs on electric cars from Chinese production, the market is shifting somewhat, as experts have discovered. Here's more about it ...(Image: CNN) — After the EU imposed tariffs on electric cars from Chinese production, the market is shifting somewhat, as experts have discovered. Here's more about it ...
(Image: CNN)

According to a study by the European transport association T&E, the share of battery vehicles sold in Europe that were produced by Western manufacturers in China dropped from 38 to 23 percent of total electric car sales between 2024 and the first quarter of 2026. The figures are based on production and sales data from the provider Globaldata, as explained. The examined Western brands are BMW, Dacia, Volvo, Smart, and also Tesla. However, tariffs have hardly been able to curb the import of electric cars by Chinese manufacturers, as noted by the analysts. In particular, the automakers BYD and Geely have been able to significantly increase their imports to Europe since 2024, despite the tariffs. This is mainly due to the high overproduction of these companies in China.

The Chinese are clever! After the EU introduced countervailing duties on electric cars, they quickly realized that plug-in hybrids, like the Sealing 6 Touring from BYD, were not affected. However, the EU Commission now wants to block these loopholes... (Image: BYD)

Heavily Subsidized Brand Saic Performs Worse

An exception is the company Saic, whose sales figures for Europe have sharply declined since 2024. According to T&E, this is because Saic's electric cars are subject to almost twice as high tariffs as vehicles from BYD or Geely. This, in turn, is due to the EU's conclusion in an investigation that Saic benefits more significantly from state subsidies in the value chain than the two Chinese competitors. Nevertheless, Chinese manufacturers are also relocating a larger part of their electric car production to Europe, as evidenced. Since the EU's investigation into subsidies in 2023, ten planned production sites on the continent have become known, as T&E has discovered. Additionally, Chinese manufacturers are increasingly relying on plug-in hybrids (PHEV) for exports from China. Chinese brands now hold a 13 percent share of the EU's PHEV market, compared to only three percent in 2024, according to T&E. T&E's findings largely align with the production data from the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).

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