///  The trend of domestic brands' technological feedback to foreign automakers is emerging.

Editor: Xiao Ying

Recently, the United States, the European Union, and Canada have successively announced the imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, triggering strong concern in China's automotive industry.

The strong development of China's new energy vehicles has made the overseas market feel threatened. Suppressing China's auto exports has become a tool for political games by overseas parties.

As the export of entire vehicles faces pressure, technological feedback to foreign automakers is becoming an alternative solution. In the past year, there have been more and more cases of domestic brands exporting technology in reverse.

On June 19, Chery Automobile and Jaguar Land Rover announced that they will launch a new brand called "Freelander Shenxingzhe", and the new product line will adopt Chery's pure electric platform.

Looking further back, collaborations between Geely and Renault, SAIC and Audi, Xpeng and Volkswagen, ZERO 1 and Stellantis, etc., Chinese automakers have all played a role as technology exporters to a certain extent.

01

The United States, the European Union, and Canada will impose tariffs

Recently, the United States, the European Union, and Canada have successively announced that they will increase tariffs on China's electric vehicles, directly targeting China's new energy vehicle exports for suppression.

On May 14, the US government announced the implementation of "countervailing" tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, increasing the tariff from the current 25% to 100%.

Compared to the straightforward approach of the US, the EU's imposition of tariffs seems more justified.

On June 12, the European Commission announced that the EU will impose tariffs of up to 38.1% on Chinese electric vehicles, which will be implemented around July 4.

The European Commission stated that it would impose tariffs of 17.4%, 20%, and 38.1% on BYD, Geely Automobile, and SAIC Motor Corporation respectively; and a 21% tariff on other manufacturers.

The difference in the amount of tariff increases mainly depends on the new energy vehicle subsidies received by Chinese automakers. The EU obtained relevant data based on its investigation, and the 21% tariff is the weighted average of the above three companies.

In addition, the European Commission also stated that it would impose a 38.1% tariff on pure electric vehicle manufacturers that did not cooperate with the investigation and a lower 21% tariff on Asian manufacturers that complied with the investigation but were not "sampled".

These tariffs are currently temporary, but if a solution cannot be reached through negotiations with China, the European Commission will publish a regulation in the Official Journal by July 4, 2024, detailing the interim findings that led to this tariff level. Final tariff measures will be announced within 4 months after the interim tariffs take effect.

According to a Bloomberg report on June 21, Canada is also preparing to impose new tariffs on electric vehicles made in China to align its actions with those of the US and the EU.

How to respond to the deliberate targeting by the US, the EU, and Canada? Jian Junbo, deputy director of the China-Europe Relations Research Center at Fudan University and deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai European Studies Association, shared some perspectives.

He mentioned that if the EU's tariff increases cause significant difficulties for China's relevant automakers to expand into the European market, investing in Europe and establishing production factories and service bases locally, thereby avoiding high tariffs, could be a possible way to address the current challenges. Integrating into the European market through joint ventures could enable China's electric vehicles and services to operate overseas.

It is also possible to