Tesla EU Tariffs Drop to 9% for China-Made Vehicles

Teslarati:

The European Commission (EC) recently dropped Tesla China’s import tariffs to 9%. Based on the EC’s initial rates, Tesla received 20.8% duties, lower than the maximum rate of 37.6%. Tesla received a lower rate because it cooperated with the EC’s anti-subsidy probe on EV imports from China.

X.com@Jackie Xie:
1) The EC announced on Tuesday that in the future, Tesla will only have to pay a 9% tariff on each car it imports from China to the EU, instead of the previous 20%. This makes Tesla the company with the most favorable tariffs among all manufacturers.

2) In the future, all other car manufacturers produced in China will have to pay at least 21.3% tariffs when exporting to the European Union, including German manufacturers BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen (also include Nio and Xpeng).

3) The EC explained that Tesla's tariffs are lower because the company does not have a joint venture with a local company in China, but manufactures cars independently, so it receives less state subsidies.

4) Take Volkswagen, for example, which has three partners in China and has to pay different but higher tariffs. The joint venture production with SAIC will be subject to the highest tariff of 36.3%, while the joint ventures with FAW and JAC will be subject to a tariff of 21.3%.

5) These tariffs will only come into effect after the EC publishes its final decision likely before October 30.  If the new tariffs are implemented, it will give Tesla a huge competitive advantage in the EU market.

My Take: Teslarati and Jacky Xie reported why Tesla EV's tariff is lowered and the reasons given (by EC) are fair despite what some media (and someone) commenting otherwise.  The reduction in tariff for Tesla also makes Nio's new model, ONVO to compete with Tesla more difficult. Nio's importing EV to the EU faced higher tariffs and may not meet the forecast sales of 20,000 cars per month.

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