Pole Position "UBS European & US Autos Daily" Hummel

Research evidence excerpt

Pole Position "UBS European & US Autos Daily" Hummel

Global Research

19 June 2026ab

Pole Position Equities

Europe including UKUBS European & US Autos Daily

Automobiles

Patrick Hummel, CFA

EU readies import tariffs on Chinese PHEVs Analyst

Handelsblatt reports that the EU plans to impose import tariffs on Chinese PHEV, which patrick.hummel@ubs.com

are so far not in scope of the EU’s tariffs on Chinese-made EVs. Reportedly, measures will +41-44-239 52 54

be taken as soon as the next few weeks, the newspaper claims, referring to comments David Lesne

from EU officials and auto industry executives. It’s further written that the EU Analyst

Commission could quickly impose tariffs as soon as the majority of EU member states david.lesne@ubs.com

approves them. +33-14-888 3034

Joseph Spak, CFA

Our view: Analyst

PHEVs are indeed a “loophole” in the EU tariff framework that Chinese OEMs are joseph.spak@ubs.com

+1-212-713 3089

benefitting from. Out of the ~9% Chinese OEM market share in the EU ytd, about one-

quarter are PHEVs (the mix had shifted towards PHEVs after the EU introduced the BEV Juan Perez-Carrascosa

tariffs). We think the measure, if and when implemented, will only moderately slow Analyst

down Chinese OEM expansion into Europe. First, margins including tariffs (we would juan-perez.carrascosa@ubs.com

+34-91-436 9025

assume the same tariffs would apply as for BEV imports) are potentially still higher for

Chinese OEMs vs. domestic margins in China. Second, localization strategies of Chinese Paul Gong

OEMs in Europe are accelerating (not least due to the weak domestic market), with Analyst

acquisitions of existing brownfield capacity that drastically reduce the time-to-market paul.gong@ubs.com

+852-2971 7868

vis-à-vis a greenfield investment.