Chinese Auto Skirt EU BEV Tariffs To Post Record Sales In Europe
Higher tariffs on imported Chinese electric cars last year haven't stopped the import surge, with Chinese automakers setting new highs in June for European sales.
The EU provisionally imposed import tariffs on Chinese EVs last year to protect their own auto industry from Government-subsidised Chinese EV technology, but omitted combustion and plug-in hybrids from the duties.
That omission has been exploited by the Chinese brands, which boosted their EU markets share to 5.5%, and they're growing at a monthly rate of 48%.
While Europeans bought 6% fewer cars in the first half of 2025 than they did last year, Chinese brands rose 72%, with MG, BYD, Chery and Geely soaking up nearly 90% of all Chinese sales.
EU tariffs on BEVs saw the MG4 slide backwards to be almost within the grasp of Geely's Polestar ... More brand for 2025 sales. Photo: Sjoerd van. The Chinese BEV assault has been blunted (dropping from 48% of the nation's sales in June 2024 to just 36%) though, and so has its combustion-only effort, which fell from 38% to 23% of sales.
The slack was taken up by plug-in hybrids, which boomed from 4% to 22%, and series hybrids grew from 5% to 15%.
BYD sells the most PHEVs of the Chinese brands, with the Seal U selling more than 6000 of the 14,522 total PHEV sales from China.
The Chinese BEV assault on Europe was hit so hard that MG's MG 4 held onto its Chinese BEV sales lead with only 2664 sales, just holding off the Geely-owned, Chinese-built Polestar 4 (2385) and Polestar 2 (2363) models, which have a more Europe-facing history.
Shanghai-based, Government-owned MG Motor saw its sales slump in June, hamstrung by tariffs on its mainstay, the fully electric MG4. The MG4 saw a 72% decline over the pre-tariff levels of June 2024.
The overall monthly result saw it post 25,027 sales, which was strong enough to remain ahead of the growing BYD, which leapt ahead by 303% to 14,968 sales.
Chery finally introduced its eponymous brand in Europe, sitting alongside its Jaecoo and Omoda brands, and trailed home its compatriots with 8860 sales.
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