Chinese EV makers’ domination of Europe has reversed course after tariffs
If President Trump is looking for some validation for his new auto tariffs, he might point across the pond to Europe.
Chinese electric vehicle producers were eating European automakers’ lunch. Now, in aggregate, they’re not.
The European Union imposed provisional tariffs on imported Chinese electric vehicles last July, and a more definitive set of measures went into effect at the end of October.
Bloomberg, citing data from auto research firm Dataforce, shows that Chinese EV makers’ share of new registrations across Europe’s EV market ramped from less than 3% at the end of 2021 to more than 11% as of midyear 2024. Post-tariffs, that market share has shrunk to less than 7% in February to sit at a two-year low.
Now, there are still winners to speak of — for instance, data from Jato Dynamics shows that BYD’s registrations across the continent were up 94% year on year in February — but overall, Chinese brands saw a 3.2% drop in new registrations from the same month one year ago.
Their loss has not been Tesla’s gain, but rather, Dataforce analyst Julian Litzinger said “conventional brands” like Volkswagen, Renault, and Kia have been the beneficiaries.
