STUTTGART, Oct 20 – The ongoing tariff war between the European Union and China was a major discussion point among visitors to Stuttgart’s Automotive Management Summit, an event that brings together the biggest names in the European car business.
The dispute was among a host of challenges facing the automotive industry, concentrating the minds of delegates.
The summit theme was ‘looking to the future’, but Institut für Automobilwirtschaft CEO Stefan Reindl told CGTN it was the present that currently worried him.
“We are in a crisis and it’s an enormous crisis,” he said. “I think we have some trouble with sales, and with the supply chain structures in the automotive industry. We must optimize the operative business of the manufacturers and the suppliers. Too many people produce too few cars.”
When it comes to electric vehicles, the main issues and concerns surround pricing, while cars manufactured in Europe are significantly more expensive than those built in China.
The latter has prompted the EU Commission to push for tariffs as high as 45 percent on some Chinese EVs coming into the EU.
Brussels says subsidies given to Chinese manufacturers create an unfair playing field. In response, Beijing has called the tariffs unfair, and its Ministry of Commerce says the situation has “seriously affected” the two sides’ cooperation in the automotive industry.
Recently, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticized the tariffs. Skoda CEO Klaus Zellmer told CGTN he agreed, warning that tariffs on Chinese manufactured EVs will end up being detrimental to the European car industry.
