There have been many voices in the European automobile industry that have long warned of the risk posed by an uncontrolled arrival of cheap Chinese cars, especially electric ones. Carlos TavaresCEO of Stellantis, is the one who has most clearly positioned himself in this sense and a year ago he regretted that the EU was rolling out a red carpet for those cars. Days ago, Oliver Zipse, head of the BMW Group, insisted on this danger; not so much for luxury brands like yours, but for the so-called generalist builders. Those with large volume.
First, because it is admitted by everyone that the Asian giant we are at least a decade ahead in the development of this technologyApart from the fact that they control up to 75% of the world’s battery production capacity and also own many components and the chemistry necessary to treat them. A doubly strategic issue: apart from its impact on the supply chain, the battery accounts for between 30% and 40% of the cost of a 100% electric vehicle.
Second, because despite that, in its race to be the first decarbonized region in the world, the EU has entrusted everything precisely to those cars and will prohibit the sale of models with combustion engines from 2035. Only those that can use synthetic fuels would be admitted, whose journey remains to be seen.
And third, because there has always been a suspicion that Chinese cars arriving in Europe They can be sold cheaper thanks to the public money injected into them, as the majority of the builders are owned by the Government, the cantons or some municipalities. He said it, black on white in a recent letter, Sigrid de Vriesgeneral secretary of Acea, the association of European automobile manufacturers.
That is precisely the argument on which the investigation announced this Wednesday by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, rests. An investigation that comes at the request of, among others, France. So, protectionist measures are out -such as an increase in current tariffs- that some manufacturers have positioned themselves against. They argue that the Japanese arrived before them and then the Koreans and the European industry continues to be a benchmark in this sector. The landing of those Asian builders, though, which took decades to reach their current position, occurred in a very different context. For example, when everything revolved around the combustion engine, a technology that in China ended up accepting that they were not going to control it and for this reason, at the beginning of this century, they decided to turn to the electric one.