The EU will impose additional tariffs of 17.4% to 38.1% on electric cars produced in China, the European Commission announced on Wednesday (12 June), as preliminary results from its anti-subsidy investigation confirmed prices are being distorted by Chinese state support.
The value chain of Chinese electric cars “benefits from unfair subsidisation, which is causing a threat of economic injury to EU battery electric vehicles producers,” EU Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas said on Wednesday (12 June).
“When our partners breach the rules, we will assert our rights,” Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement.
“Today we have reached a milestone in our anti-subsidy investigation,” he said, adding that “this is based on clear evidence of our extensive investigation and in full respect of WTO rules.”
Duties will differ per carmaker, with Chinese state-owned manufacturer SAIC facing the highest duty at 38.1%, Chinese Geely to face 20% and BYD 17.4%.
They’re comparing against the price of an ICE engine and the fact that they don’t contain one to offset the cost.
But they do have an expensive electric motor instead of the ICE, plus an expensive battery.
Electric motors are substantially cheaper (and simpler, and lighter) than internal combustion. Hell, the typical ICE has two electric motors already in it! (starter, alternator)
Not really. There is a lot of metal - wires - in the electric motor. Retail prices on motors is a lot higher than the retail price on an ICE. https://www.grainger.com/product/WEG-IEEE-841-Motor-250-HP-15G092 is a 250 horse power motor for $30k. https://www.jegs.com/i/Chevrolet-Performance/809/19435110/10002/-1 is a 500 horsepower ICE (I think this is new, but the site also sells rebuilt engines) for $7k.
Of course with motors there are a number of different ways to built them at different costs. However they are not cheaper than an ICE and we shouldn’t expect that they would be as there is a lot of metal in a motor.
Sure, but they are small, neither one is capable of moving your car down the road at full speed (the starter might do it for 10 seconds but then it will overheat)
You have whole (electric) cars for 30k, that price is laughable. Here you have 220kw (300HP) motor, inverter and differential for 3.5k euros: https://eveurope.eu/en/product/tesla-model-s-drive-train-220-kw-2/
The price difference between a single motor VS dual motor on most cars it’s also around 5k, including extra cables, installation, etc.
I can’t find any source for the type of motor used in electric cars - which presumably will be made in larger quantities bringing costs down.
A motor basically consists of copper wire and magnets neither of which are expensive materials.
An engine mostly consists of iron and aluminum which is much cheaper than copper. (cars makers are looking at if they can use aluminum wires in their motors - I’m not sure on status of that)
Yes with hundreds or thousands of parts that all need to be cast or machined to tolerances as tight as a few thousandths of an inch. Electric motors just need copper wire wrapped around in circles and a shaft with magnets attached to it. It’s very basic. I get that you want to be right but you’re not going to win the argument that electric motors are more expensive or costly to produce than an internal combustion engine.