The European Commission on Tuesday lowered its proposed tariff on imports of Tesla cars made in China, while largely maintaining other planned punitive tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles it set in July.
In the European Union’s highest-profile investigation into allegations of Chinese subsidies, the Commission published the draft final findings of its anti-subsidy investigation, prompting threats of retaliation from Beijing.
The Commission set a new reduced duty rate of 9 per cent for Tesla, lower than the 20.8 per cent it set in July.
According to the Commission, Tesla had requested a recalculation of the rate based on certain subsidies it received.
An EU official said on Tuesday that China believes its electric vehicle production benefits from extensive subsidies and proposed final duties of up to 36.3 per cent. This is slightly lower than the maximum provisional tax of 37.6 per cent set by the Commission in July for companies that do not cooperate with the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation.
Tesla was one of the companies that co-operated with the EU investigation.
The Commission said it was conducting an investigation, including sending a team to Tesla’s facilities in China to verify what subsidies the company had received.
A Commission official said that compared to the Chinese electric car makers Brussels investigated, it concluded that Tesla received fewer subsidies from China.
