Chinese manufacturers are pushing hard into the European car market. When it comes to hybrid vehicles, China is particularly strong. According to data from the European manufacturers' association ACEA, China's share of so-called plug-in hybrids in the European Union (EU) was 25 percent in the first half of the year. Two years ago the proportion was two percent.
But the rapid growth brings problems, says Helena Beron Wisbert, professor of automotive economics at the Ostfalia University in Wolfsburg, in an interview with the ARD finance editorial team. "What we see is that the problems we observe in the Chinese automobile market - strong cut-throat competition and strong price wars - are partly being exported to Europe."
First tariffs, now import limits
The EU Commission is now pulling the emergency brake. Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic traveled to China last week and negotiated the difficulties in the European auto sector. The result: The EU wants to limit the import of Chinese hybrid vehicles over a period of four years.
Next year the quota is expected to be 350,000 cars. After that, the number increases by six percent every year. The Commission assumes that this will roughly halve sales of hybrid vehicles from China.
From a trade policy perspective, the step is less severe than the tariffs that the EU had already introduced in 2024 on fully electric vehicles from China, said Beron Wisbert. The import restriction for hybrid vehicles is a grace period for car manufacturers from the EU: "They now have more time to position their plug-in hybrids and full hybrids better technologically and to catch up."
European manufacturers underestimated hybrids
For a long time, hybrid solutions - i.e. combustion engines and batteries combined - were considered at best a transitional technology. German manufacturers also saw this as nothing more than an intermediate step towards fully electric driving.
The self-employed car expert Jürgen Pieper sees the upswing in hybrid vehicles as one of the biggest surprises of the past two years: "I can remember that we sat with a board member of a large German automobile manufacturer who said two years ago: 'This market is dead, we won't invest any more in it.' That was completely wrong."
Combination of combustion engine and battery in demand among customers
No other vehicle group has recently been purchased so frequently in Germany. These include full hybrids, whose batteries recharge while driving, and plug-in models, whose batteries are also charged via cable.
According to car analyst Pieper in an interview with the ARD financial editorial team, customers particularly appreciate that the hybrid vehicles combine the advantages of combustion engines and battery technology: "They are never embarrassed by not being able to refuel or charge. Something always works."
However, the new upper limit for Chinese cars is not a sure-fire success for European manufacturers. Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether customers will actually turn to potentially more expensive hybrids from the EU in the next four years once the quota of Chinese brands has been exhausted.
EU regulation does not help against slumping sales in China
In addition, the ongoing weak sales on the Chinese market, which is also hitting German manufacturers hard, remains unaffected by the quotas. This is shown by the example of Volkswagen: Germany's largest car company sold almost 40 percent fewer vehicles in China in the past few months than in the previous year.
Industry expert Christoph Sturmer from csBeratung recommends that companies like Volkswagen not lose focus in this situation: "In my opinion, it is important for Volkswagen to clearly focus on the growth markets that are linked to fully electric vehicles."
And so the EU's new hybrid limit is likely to give European manufacturers some time, but not automatically more sales.
