Their share will increase in 2024. In 2023, almost one in five electrically powered vehicles would have been imported from China, the environmental lobby organization Transport & Environment announced on Wednesday. Western car manufacturers accounted for the majority of imports: Tesla, Dacia and BMW were the most important importers of vehicles produced in China, it said.

Tesla builds the Model 3 in its factory in Shanghai, Dacia produces the small electric car Spring in the People's Republic, BMW introduces the electric version of the X3 from China and wants to import the electric Mini from the People's Republic. Chinese manufacturers still play a subordinate role, but their share is likely to increase significantly. T&E predicts that Chinese companies will have a market share of eleven percent of electric cars in Europe this year, which could rise to 20 percent by 2027.

The European Union is currently considering punitive tariffs on Chinese cars in order to support the domestic industry. If import duties rise to 25 percent, this will make Chinese mid-range cars more expensive than their European counterparts, the T&E experts wrote. Smaller SUVs and larger vehicles from China, on the other hand, are likely to remain cheaper. "Tariffs will force carmakers to build electric cars in Europe, and that's good because we want those jobs and skills," said T&E expert Julia Poliscanova. "But tariffs will not protect European carmakers for long. Chinese carmakers will build factories in Europe, and when that comes, our car industry has to be ready."

(Report by Christina Amann, edited by Kerstin Dörr. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)