Asia Tech Wire (July 22) -- Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor has filed a defense against the European Union's preliminary anti-subsidy ruling on electric vehicles.

According to SAIC Motor, at its request, the European Commission held a thematic hearing on the anti-subsidy investigation at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday.

During the hearing, SAIC Motor submitted to the EC a defense to the preliminary anti-subsidy ruling, and suggested that the investigation involves commercially sensitive information, such as the requirement to provide chemical formulas related to batteries, which is beyond the normal scope of an investigation.

In addition, SAIC Motor said the agency made errors in its determination of subsidies, such as confusing an auto finance company wholly owned by its foreign joint venture partner as its affiliate, and included it in the calculation of the subsidy rate.

The Chinese automaker also said it had submitted thousands of written documents in the course of the investigation, but the EC had ignored some of the key information and defenses and inflated the subsidy rates for a number of items.

SAIC Motor expects the EC to make a final ruling on November 2nd.

"SAIC Motor will reserve the right to take further legal measures in response to the EC's unfair, unreasonable and unlawful preliminary ruling determination," it said.

On June 12, 2024, the EC issued a preliminary ruling pre-disclosure that calculated a 38.1% subsidy rate for SAIC Motor.

And on July 4, the EC formally announced the result of the preliminary ruling, announcing that the duty rate was 37.6%, and planned to impose provisional anti-subsidy duty on SAIC Motor accordingly.