Chinese car makers importing to the UK are seeing signs that the country is not planning to follow the European Union's increase in tariffs on China-built electric vehicles.
“What I heard is that the UK will not follow the European Union,” Victor Zhang, managing director of Chery in the UK, told Autocar at last weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. "I think that would be a wise decision."
Chery is partnered with JLR in China and has opened 60 dealerships in the UK in advance of sales of two brands starting later this year.
The mood among Chinese EV makers targeting the UK will have been improved by a report yesterday that UK trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds has signalled that the UK will stick to the current 10% tariff for the moment and not adopt the EU’s temporary increase up to a maximum 47% of the wholesale cost.
“I am not ruling anything out but, if you have a very much export-orientated industry, the decision you take [has to be] the right one for that sector,” the Financial Times reported Reynolds as saying.
The UK exported eight of 10 cars made in the country last year, meaning that the local car industry would be less disrupted by any potential upheaval in its home market. However, with many high-value models heading to China – for example, Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports – the UK is vulnerable to any potential retaliatory tariffs if it does follow the EU.
Chinese car makers argue that access to lower-priced EVs is essential to shift the market in the direction indicated by legislators, which culminates in a de facto ban on the sale of new cars with combustion engines starting in 2035.
“I think the UK can very rapidly become the next country with very strong EV adoption,” Stella Li, head of BYD in Europe, told Autocar at Goodwood. “Europe increasing tariffs, I think, is the wrong direction.”
For pure-EV sales, BYD outsold Honda, Ford, Mini, Renault, Jaguar and Citroën in the UK in the first six months of this year, at almost 3000 units.
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