The European Union is defeating Chinese electric cars – their sales halved in August

At the beginning of July, temporary increased duties on the import of Chinese-made electric vehicles into the European Union came into force; European parliamentarians must approve their value for five years by the beginning of November. August results show that sales of electric vehicles from China in Europe decreased by 48% year-on-year.

Image source: BYD

According to Bloomberg, August sales volumes of Chinese electric vehicles in Europe are the lowest over the previous year and a half. It is natural that after the introduction of increased duties in July, sales of Chinese cars in the EU decreased for the second month in a row. If before this the most popular electric cars from China in Europe were once the British MGs, now supplied by the Chinese concern SAIC, then in August their sales volumes decreased by 65%, and the leader in popularity became the Chinese BYD, which remains the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in its homeland . Moreover, BYD will soon be completely ahead of Tesla in the global market.

Unfortunately for the MG brand, SAIC, which owns it, has since July been forced to pay an additional 38% on each Chinese-assembled electric car imported into the EU, on top of the basic 10% for all countries. It is likely that the rate will be reduced to 35% by November, but this will not help the Chinese automaker much. According to Jato Dynamics, BYD products in Europe at the end of August increased sales volumes by 19% compared to last year. This Chinese manufacturer enjoys lower tariffs compared to SAIC.

Chery recently announced that it was postponing the start of electric vehicle assembly at the company it bought in Spain until October 2025, as the project as a whole requires more in-depth study. Previously, local assembly of Chery electric vehicles in Spain was planned to launch in the fall of 2024. Demand for electric vehicles of any origin is falling this year in Europe; over the eight months of this year it decreased by 5.5%, if we focus on registrations of new cars. This was partly facilitated by the refusal of some countries in the bloc to subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles by citizens.