The new Tesla Model 3+ is on sale at a Tesla store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, September 26, 2023.
Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Tesla on Thursday said it will likely increase the Europe prices of its Model 3 vehicle from July 1 after the European Union said it could impose provisional higher tariffs on electric cars imported from China.
“We’re anticipating a requirement for us to increase pricing for Model 3 vehicles as of 1 July 2024,” a notice on Tesla’s website said. “This is due to additional import duties likely to be imposed on electric vehicles manufactured in China and sold in the E.U.”
The company did not disclose by how much it plans to hike the Model 3 price for Europe at this time.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, this week said it is raising tariffs on cars imported from China to the 27-nation bloc. The higher duties are the result of an EU probe into the Chinese EV sector which concluded that the battery-electric vehicles value chain in China “benefits from unfair subsidisation.”
These provisional duties will come into effect from July 4, if the EU does not reach a solution with Chinese authorities. So-called definitive measures will be implemented four months after this.
Chinese EVs face tariffs up to 38.1% so far. While some EV makers received specific duties, Tesla has not yet been told the exact duty it will have to pay for cars it makes in China and imports into the EU.
The commission said at this stage, Tesla “may receive an individually calculated duty rate.”
Shanghai is home to one of Tesla’s biggest Gigafactories. In 2023, the U.S. automaker delivered 947,000 vehicles from its Shanghai factory with 600,000 going to the China market and the rest exported, according to Chinese state media.