EU to probe electric vehicle imports from China

Brussels – The European Commission (EC) is launching an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles coming from China, president Ursula von der Leyen has announced.

“Global competition is good for business and creates and protects good jobs here in Europe,” von der Leyen set out in a ‘state of the union’ address 13 Sept.

But competition is only true as long as it is fair, added the EC leader, claiming that European companies are “often undercut by competitors benefitting from huge state subsidies.”

Von der Leyen went on to describe the electric vehicles sector as “crucial industry for the clean economy, with a huge potential for Europe.

But, she said, “global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars. And their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies.”

The EC president concluded: “As we do not accept this from the inside, we do not accept this from the outside.

"Europe is open for competition: not for a race to the bottom.”