Chinese EV makers will challenge the tariffs in the EU court

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers BYD, Geely and SAIC have challenged EU import tariffs at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), documents posted on the court’s website showed on Thursday.

After an anti-subsidy investigation, the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese-made EVs in late October, including 17.0% for ByD, 18.8% for Geely and 35.3% for SAIC, on top of the EU’s standard car import duty of 10%.

Court records show that all three filed their complaint with the Supreme Court in two lower chambers of the CJEU on Tuesday, before a deadline to file the case. Proceedings at the Supreme Court last an average of 18 months and can be appealed.

No further details were given about the cases.

The European Commission said it was aware of the case and had two months and 10 days to prepare its defence.

It is unclear whether there are challenges from other EV makers, including European companies manufacturing in China, or the China Chamber of Commerce for Imports and Exports of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME), which represents Chinese EV manufacturers.

The challenges may include arguments over subsidy assessment, establishing injury to EU industry and whether the Commission decided to prosecute on its own rather than following an industry complaint.

SAIC is expected to charge the highest tariff. This allowed the commission to fill in the missing pieces with selected facts following his decision not to cooperate with the investigation.

China-based EV makers have also complained that Tesla, the biggest exporter of EVs from China to the EU, was not included in the official sample, which is used to calculate the prices of other companies. The sampled companies were BYD, Geely and SAIC.

Tesla confirmed the minimum additional tariff of 7.8%. If it had been part of the sample, affiliated companies would have benefited from a 20.7 percent lower tariff than they currently face.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)