Chinese electric vehicle stocks $XPeng (XPEV.US)$ , $Li Auto (LI.US)$ , $ZEEKR (ZK.US)$ , and $nio are trading higher Tuesday after a Monday report indicated that the People's Bank of China (PBOC) looks to slash the bank reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 50 bps, followed by another half-point cut in the first half of 2025. Li climbed 10%.

However, the Chinese EV industry is battling multiple protectionist policies from international regulators. Last week, the U.S. government slapped tariff hikes on Chinese imports, including Chinese EVs, solar cells, steel, aluminum, EV batteries, and critical minerals, effective Sept. 27.

This came on top of the U.S.'s advanced semiconductor sanctions by restricting its access to sophisticated artificial intelligence chips from $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ in China.

On Monday, the European Commission informed Reuters that the deadline for Chinese EV makers to make minimum price commitments had expired.

The Commission, amid an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EVs, has proposed final tariffs of up to 35.3% in addition to the European Union's standard 10% car import duty as they find that the industrial subsidies have rendered the Chinese imports as cheap, leading to unfair competition, SCMP reports. Last week, the Commission rejected offers from Chinese exporters to put a price floor on their EV shipments.

China opposed the EU import tariffs and assured support for the industry, which was grappling with lackluster domestic demand and protectionist tariffs. Chinese EV stocks are down 44%- 52% in the last 12 months.

The EU will vote on the proposed final duties on September 25.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao went to Europe this week for discussions on the EU's anti-subsidy case, Reuters reports.