Asia Tech Wire (Oct 14) -- GAC Group is exploring the possibility of producing electric vehicles in Europe to avoid tariffs, Wei Haigang, general manager of international business at the Chinese state-owned automaker, said in an interview with Reuters.

In early October, the European Commission passed a draft final ruling on an anti-subsidy case against China, which will impose tariffs of between 17% and 36.3% on Chinese electric vehicles from Oct. 31 onwards.

Wei said the company still sees Europe as an important and relatively open market, and that the tariff issue will have an impact on the company, but can be solved in the long term.

He said local production may be one way to solve the problem, and the company is very proactively exploring the feasibility.

But the discussions are very preliminary, while the company is considering building a plant in Europe, sharing a facility or buying an existing one.

GAC, which aims to sell 500,000 units overseas by 2030, does not yet sell electric cars in Europe.

However, GAC plans to unveil the Aion V, an electric sport-utility vehicle (SUV) for the European market, at the Paris Auto Show, kicking off on Monday.

The company is expected to start selling the Aion V in Europe in the middle of next year, with pricing below 40,000 euros.