China is in fact competing via something usually considered illegal in international trade: Production subsidies meant to enable their companies to sell products for under manufacturing cost so they can kill off all competition. Yes, all auto manufacturers have had help from their national govenrments, but Mercedes doesn’t get paid by Germany to build more cars to sell in China. We do EV subsidies on the purchase side in Europe, so it’s manufacturer-agnostic.
We regularly tariff things that other countries subsidize the production of. China does it as well. And China’s had tariffs for foreign cars for decades.
China is in fact competing via something usually considered illegal in international trade: Production subsidies meant to enable their companies to sell products for under manufacturing cost so they can kill off all competition. Yes, all auto manufacturers have had help from their national govenrments, but Mercedes doesn’t get paid by Germany to build more cars to sell in China. We do EV subsidies on the purchase side in Europe, so it’s manufacturer-agnostic.
We regularly tariff things that other countries subsidize the production of. China does it as well. And China’s had tariffs for foreign cars for decades.
Chinese companies like BYD have also been trying to kick off manufacturing in Europe, but unfortunately even in Hungary it’s a bit harder to get away with slavery than in China. Hopefully they’ll find a way around watchful eyes so we can get cheaper Chinese EVs in Europe too.
Maybe Germany should try that a bit, but with the condition that the wonderful AUTOSAR is killed.