Tesla looks like an indirect winner from European protectionist measures, with the U.S. electric-vehicle maker likely to benefit as regulators prepare to crack down on emerging competition from high-growth Chinese names such as NIO, BYD, and XPeng.
“Global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars. And their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies,” von der Leyen’s prepared remarks read. “This is distorting our market. And as we do not accept this from the inside, we do not accept this from the outside. So I can announce today that the Commission is launching an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles coming from China.
The single fastest-growing EV manufacturer in Europe is China’s BYD , with registrations from January to the end of July up 323% in 2023, according to Matthias Schmidt, the publisher of the European Electric Car Report. Schmidt’s research covers markets representing 95% of the European region’s EV volumes.
One name dominates: Tesla , which is likely to be an unexpected beneficiary of any material protectionist measures that emerge out of the EU investigation. Tesla’s share in Europe accounted for almost 19% of the market in 2023 as of the end of July, up 129% from its 12% share across the same period in 2022, according to Schmidt.