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Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holdings Group, posted a post on Weibo in response to the EU countervailing investigation. Yang Xueliang said: "Geely holding Group will actively cooperate with the EU countervailing investigation." Automobile is a global industry. Geely Holdings Group always respects free trade, advocates fair competition, strictly abides by the laws and regulations of various countries in the world, and participates in market competition in accordance with the law. Based on the principle of mutual benefit and win-win results, Geely Holdings Group has continued to invest in Europe for more than a decade, which not only protects European iconic car brands, but also creates good industrial synergy.

It is worth mentioning that Chinese carmakers are actively responding to the EU countervailing investigation.

On October 23, Great Wall President Mu Feng also blogged that Great Wall took the lead in responding to the EU countervailing investigation and was the first to submit response materials on the 11th of this month. 'We need a fair and open trading environment,'he said. At the same time, with the systematic competitive strength of Great Wall, we have the strength to win competitive advantage in the global market. We are firmly committed to the development of globalization, secularism and ecological development. Chinese cars going to sea will be bumpy, but we will unswervingly speed up the pace of going out to sea!

Earlier, Li Ke, executive vice president of BYD, also said in an interview with the media that as a listed company, BYD needs to be managed in a transparent and open way of sharing information, so it is not worried about any ongoing investigations in Europe. In order to dispel misunderstandings about BYD in the European market, BYD will share all the information it needs with the European Union and will continue to promote the development of the company.

In addition to Geely and Great Wall Motor's response, a number of Chinese car companies have also begun to build local plants. In mid-September, SAIC announced that it had started the location of its car assembly plant in Europe; BYD executives said at the Munich auto show in September that the location of the European vehicle plant would be determined by the end of the year.

On Sept. 13, European Commission President Ursula Ursula von der Leyen announced that he would launch a countervailing investigation into Chinese electric cars because of EU concerns that Chinese car companies produce low-cost electric cars through large government subsidies, which could threaten the development of local electric vehicles when they pour into the EU market.

On October 4, the European Commission officially announced its decision to launch a countervailing investigation into pure electric vehicles imported from China. However, due to the large number of companies involved, the European Commission chose the sampling method to determine the final investigation target. On October 25, the European Commission announced that three Chinese car companies, BYD, SAIC and Geely, had been selected by sampling to launch countervailing investigations.

It is understood that although Tesla shipped more electric cars from China to Europe than any other company, it is not one of the companies being investigated by the European Union. In addition, if the EU finds "subsidy evidence" in the investigation, it will calculate the corresponding "average countervailing duty", which will apply to all electric vehicles imported from China, including Volkswagen, Tesla, BMW and other major models made in China.

In fact, since the European Union announced the launch of a countervailing investigation into Chinese electric vehicles, including the Ministry of Commerce of China and the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, all responded immediately, expressing strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition. At the same time, the countervailing investigation launched by the EU affects not only Chinese electric car companies, but also multinational carmakers that produce electric vehicles in China and export to the European Union, including Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other automakers.

It is understood that Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW occupy the top three in the automobile market of 14 major European countries, with a market share of about 18%, 12% and 6.3%, respectively. Among them, domestic Tesla Model 3 and BMW iX3 are produced in China and exported. The executives of these car companies have also made their positions clear after the European Union launched a countervailing investigation into Chinese electric cars.

Earlier, Porsche Financial Director Lutz Meschke criticized the European Union for launching a countervailing investigation into electric vehicles imported from China, saying the move was "of little help" to the European Union. Walter Myrtle, chief financial officer of Germany's BMW Group, said the EU's launch of the investigation may do more harm than good. Oliver Blume, chief executive of Germany's Volkswagen Group, said he advocated fair competition, but stressed that protectionism should not arise and that EU actions would lead to more protectionism.

The industry believes that the launch of the EU countervailing investigation is related to the rapid increase in the number of Chinese car exports. According to the European Commission, Chinese brands accounted for 8% of the EU electric car market in 2022, and that proportion is expected to increase to 15% by 2025. The rapid growth in market share is mainly due to the fact that Chinese electric cars have a price advantage of about 20% over European competitors, so the EU wants to protect local manufacturers from Chinese products with lower prices due to state subsidies.

However, the head of the European Association of Auto parts Manufacturers said earlier that any tariffs imposed on Chinese electric cars exported to Europe could adversely affect European companies. In addition, Benjamin Krieger (Benjamin Krieger), executive director of the association, pointed out that the European Commission's continued focus on Chinese electric vehicles shows that it is not only serious about competition from other markets, but also aware of the need to take action to catch up with strong competitors from China.

According to reports, the scope of the EU countervailing investigation is very extensive, the investigation may last for a year, and may also lead to EU measures against Chinese-made electric cars. As of press time, the impact of the EU countervailing investigation is still in an uncertain stage, but the view is that the investigation will make it more difficult for China to export new energy vehicles.

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