Maybe the time has come to go for that MG or that BYD that you have been considering for home for a long time. It sounds agonizing, but it is a decision that can save you thousands of euros because the European Union has just made it official that they are going to impose provisional tariffs on Chinese cars of between 17% and 38%.
Let’s take a basic example: if a Chinese vehicle manufactured in that country costs about 30,000 euros right now, the same car will cost between 35,100 euros (17%) and 41,400 euros (38%) starting next month, that is, between 5,100 euros and 11,400 euros more.
They seek to protect the local industry
Under the premise of protecting the European industry, the European Commission has finally approved this measure in response to the subsidies that Chinese cars received from their own government to make them more attractive to the customer. An investigation known as “anti-subsidies” that began on October 4, 2023. In this way and according to the official press release, these tax rates are established for 3 large giants, each with a section:
- BYD, 17.4%
- Geely, 20%
- SAIC, 38.1%
Let us remember that Smart belongs to Geely and MG to SAIC. According to community officials, those manufacturers that have collaborated in the investigation into Chinese government subsidies have fewer tariffs than those that have not helped. The Commission itself also says that Tesla will have different treatment because, although it manufactures in China, it is a North American company that also has a plant in Berlin.
It is worth clarifying that the EU’s position is not community-based since there are countries that are against this measure because it violates free trade.
Carlos is an expert journalist in cars and automotives with a career in the media for more than 16 years. He landed at Car and Driver in 2007, where his main occupation is product testing, which he shows to the audience through videos on YouTube and extensive web and paper analyzes of the latest news presented. As a motor enthusiast that he is, you can also read him interviewing different leaders in the sector, giving you the latest news related to driving and telling you the most surprising curiosities about the leading brands.
His extensive career also includes work in other media such as El Mundo, Coche Actual and AutoScout24, and he made his first appearance on television in the interview program “El Círculo Neox”, broadcast on the Atresmedia channel of the same name. Long before that, practically as a child, he was a reader of Car and Driver, when the masthead was directed by the Formula 1 driver Emilio de Villota, with whom he was lucky enough to work.
Within the Hearst España publishing group, Carlos has written the motor sections of magazines such as Qué Me Dices, Emprendedores and deViajes and now he does it every day in Car and Driver and occasionally in Esquire. If he is not in the office, you will find him on a plane heading to any part of the world with one purpose: to drive the latest novelty on the market, whether it has batteries or not. Ah! And he is a fervent defender of the classics, although he no longer has his Volkswagen Golf GTI mk3.
Thanks to his work, he has been lucky enough to race a Mercedes-AMG GT in Laguna Seca and has made his debut as a driver on the legendary Nordschleife driving a BMW M2. He has also known such exotic places as the Dhofar mountains in Oman, which he traveled aboard an Audi RS 3 Sedan; the spectacular Vancouver Island, where he traveled in a Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo; and the beaches of Essaouira thanks to the wild Ford Ranger Raptor.
