SAIC Motor

Beijing said on Tuesday it had lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the European Union's decision to impose hefty tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars.

The European Commission on Thursday published the findings of its nine-month investigation into China's electric vehicle market, giving insight into how it calculated tariffs and the evidence it collected to support its highest profile trade case.

The European Commission told automakers on Wednesday it would impose extra duties of up to 38.1% on imported Chinese electric cars from July, risking retaliation from Beijing which called the move protectionist.

European Commission investigators are to inspect Chinese automakers in the coming weeks as part of a probe into whether to impose punitive tariffs to protect European electric vehicle (EV) makers, three people involved in the process said.

Volkswagen announced on Monday that it has once again postponed the opening date of some of its production facilities in China because of the coronavirus concerns.

The German carmaker said that Saic Volkswagen - the joint venture between Volkswagen and Saic Motor Corp- will resume its activities as early as February 24th.

Over the past decade, around 70 million passenger cars have been manufactured worldwide each year. According to detailed information from analysts at statista.com, in 2018, a total of 70,466,000 passenger cars were manufactured in the world.