Since 2022, Chinese electric vehicle exports have risen sharply. The world’s major economies are adapting their strategies in response to this dynamic trend. In the United States, due to the government’s efforts to boost domestic production through a combination of subsidies and tariff protection, Chinese imports of electric vehicles are very low. In the UK, on the other hand, the prioritisation of growing environmental commitments has promoted greater openness to Chinese vehicle imports. In the European Union, Chinese vehicle imports soared in 2023, prompting the tightening of tariffs in European regulations from mid-2024 onwards in order to protect the European automotive industry. Imports from China fell sharply in the summer following this measure, as anticipated in the literature, before bouncing back slightly in the autumn.

In France, electric vehicle imports have also been affected by legislative changes concerning subsidies for electric vehicle purchases. Since October 2023, the environmental bonus has been dependent on an environmental score that takes account of the place of assembly, effectively excluding vehicles from China. After increasing significantly in 2023, Chinese vehicle imports fell back very sharply in 2024. However, this downturn did not benefit the domestic industry, whose output dropped slightly over the year and, so far, the decline in imports of vehicles assembled in China has been mainly reflected in a sharp rise in imports from Germany...