T&E’s paper looks at electric vehicle imports into Europe and what an effective response on both EVs and batteries might be.
19.5% of all electric cars sold across the EU last year, or 300,000 units, were built in China. In France and Spain close to every third BEV sold in 2023 was made in China. More than half of those come from Western carmakers: 28% of all China made EVs were imported by Tesla, with Renault’s Dacia adding a further 20%. But the Chinese homegrown brands are quickly catching up: from 0.4% of the EV market in 2019 to 7.9% in 2023.
But Europe should not stop at EVs. Trade policy should become an integral part of a more strategic green industrial strategy. Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of this: more than EUR 180 bln has been invested into the EU battery value chain, predominantly gigafactories, to date. Billions of state aid have been committed to projects such as Northvolt in Germany and Verkor in France.
Strong battery sustainability requirements that reward local clean and circular manufacturing. But the carbon footprint methodology being currently developed under the new EU Battery Regulation is not sufficient and lacks strict CO2 thresholds.