Asia Tech Wire (Oct 17) -- Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc. said on Thursday that it has never privately reached any kind of tariff agreement with the European Union.
"Xpeng strictly follows the relevant national unified deployment and participates in cooperating with the EU tariff negotiations," the company said.
Earlier this month the European Commission passed a proposal to impose anti-subsidy duties of up to 35% on imported Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) in addition to the existing 10% tariffs, which is due to come into effect in November and last for five years.
Currently, under the authorization of 12 electric vehicle companies, including SAIC Motor, Geely and BYD, China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME) is negotiating with the EU on behalf of the whole industry.
However, there have been reports that the EC is negotiating price commitments with some companies separately while discussing with the Chinese side.
CCCME released a statement Wednesday night saying that the EC's separate talks with enterprises "will shake the foundation of the negotiations and mutual trust, and bring disruption to the consultations between the two sides."
According to the statement, so far, the consultations have not reached a solution acceptable to both China and Europe.
And recently, several social media accounts have posted content saying that Xpeng has compromised with the EU.
In response, Xpeng's legal department released a statement on social media platform Weibo on Thursday, strongly condemning those rumor-mongers who spread false information, concocted and proliferated false texts on the Internet, and attempted to manipulate the direction of public opinion through organized behavior.
Also on Wednesday, GAC Group, which is exploring the production of electric cars in Europe, responded to reports of related price negotiations.
"As an important member of China's electric vehicle industry, GAC will carry out the work related to the EU anti-subsidy case in a legal and compliant manner," the Chinese state-owned automaker said.
