Tesla takes EU to court over Chinese made Tesla models
American EV maker, Tesla, has taken the European Commission to court after the bloc imposed tariffs on its Chinese-made vehicles.
In June 2024, the EU announced that it would be imposing tariffs of up to 35% on all EVs made in China, after claiming that the Chinese government had provided unfair state subsidies to domestic car manufacturers in order to obtain a dominant position in the EV sector. In October, the decision to impose the tariffs was approved by EU leaders.
On January 22, 2025, the European Court of Justice showed that Tesla had filed its case, but gave no further information.
Despite making cars at a Gigafactory in Berlin, Germany, and across its home market in the United States, Tesla still imports a significant number of vehicles from its Shanghai factory to the EU, which puts it within the tariff bracket; albeit at a significantly lower 7.8% than some competitors.
Tesla is not the only manufacturer to express displeasure towards the EU’s decision to slap Chinese-made EVs with tariffs, as BMW also filed a case.
The German manufacturer builds its all-electric iX3 and i5 models at its Dadong factory in China. Following the EU’s announcement, BMW’s Chinese-made EVs have been hit with a 20.7% import tariff.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a BMW spokesperson commented that the tariffs are proving counterproductive to the EU’s green directive that all new cars sold within the union by 2035 must have zero emissions.
“The countervailing duties harm the business model of globally active companies, they limit the supply of e-cars to European customers and can therefore even slow down decarbonisation in the transport sector,” they said.
BMW and Tesla shares have since fallen by 0.35% and 2.32% respectively.
Chinese automotive giant BYD has been hit with a 17% levy, and Geely – the parent company of European players such as Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus – faces an 18.8% import tariff to the EU. Meanwhile, MG owner SAIC is the worst off of the Chinese manufacturers with a 35.5% levy.
Each levy is added to an already-fixed 10% import tariff on all car imports to the EU.
