China voiced dissatisfaction on Wednesday at a demand by the European Union to engage within a “very short” time in consultations on the bloc’s inquiry into subsidies for electric vehicles.
The remarks came as the European Commission formally launched the investigation on whether to set tariffs to shield its producers from a “flood” of imports of cheaper Chinese electric vehicles (EV) it says benefit from state subsidies.
However, China was “very much dissatisfied” with the anti-subsidy investigation as it lacked adequate evidence and did not conform with World Trade Organization rules, the country’s commerce ministry said in a statement.
What the fuck does an EV manufacturer that “answers to the CPC” even mean? That the government can use their industrial capacity in wartime? That if the company flagrantly breaks the law that the CEO will see real consequences like jail time? That the company is subject to import and export laws of the country it operates in?
Europe needs to wake up to the realities of climate change. Their ignorance of the impacts of climate change and their ignorance of the imminent EV transition led them down this path. European policymakers could see this from a mile away, yet of the top-selling cars in Europe how many are EVs?
While the US and China were dumping billions of dollars into EV startups to fuel the transition to cleaner air and reduced GHG emissions, European governments allowed their legacy industries to trundle on with ICEs instead: Peugeot, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Fiat, Citroen, Renault, Skoda. Now, European carmakers can’t compete.