Highway robbery: how the UK’s post-Brexit electric car policy blew a fuse

Post-Brexit, Britain steered clear of EU-style additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in a bid to make them cheaper. Instead, UK drivers are paying much the same while manufacturers appear to pocket the difference, says Steve McCauley

The European Union imposes heavy anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles (EVs) — for example 17 percent on BYD and an eye-watering 35.3 percent on SAIC Motor, the Chinese state-owned manufacturer whose brands include MG. The tax is charged on the CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) landed value of the cars.

This is in addition to the base import duty of 10 percent, applied to the CIF value of all cars brought into the EU. Thousands of euros in additional anti-dumping duties are now included in the retail price of every Chinese EV sold in EU countries, as the bloc seeks to protect its manufacturers from what it regards as unfair competition and subsidised dumping by China.

In contrast, the UK Government has used its post-Brexit freedoms to apply only a 10 percent duty to car imports to the UK. There is no additional UK anti-dumping duty aimed at China.

The British Government’s reasoning appears to be that avoiding high additional tariffs will make EVs more affordable and drive take-up. By not imposing punitive EU-style anti-dumping duties, consumers should, in theory, pay less.

As such, you might logically assume that similar Chinese-built electric cars would be significantly cheaper in the UK than in France or Germany. After all, the additional 35.3 percent tax (CIF) on a car such as the MG4 — whose retail price in Germany is around £30,000 — is likely to exceed £4,000 (the exact numbers are not public). A BYD Atto 2 entry-level Boost model costs around £30,500 in Germany, suggesting an additional anti-dumping tax (17 percent on the CIF cost) of roughly £2,900 built into the price.

But you would be wrong. Nothing is logical when it comes to Brexit. 

The UK retail list price for the popular BYD Atto 2 entry-level Boost model is £30,135. In France, it is around £26,200. The MG4 Premium Long Range 64 kWh retails for £29,995 in the UK — and around the same amount in France. As seems so often to be the case, the UK has used its radioactive post-Brexit freedom to engineer the worst of all worlds.

Chinese manufacturers appear to be cannily pricing their cars at similar or higher levels in the UK than in EU markets and, in effect, pocketing the difference. That difference is what they would otherwise have had to pay to the UK Government had Britain followed the EU’s lead — or remained inside the bloc — and applied anti-dumping duties.

The hypothetical sums are not trivial. Chinese brands sold almost 200,000 new cars in the UK in 2025 — representing 9.7% of the total market and 12.7% of all EV sales. As Chinese brands take a growing share of the electric car market, sales in 2026 are likely to rise further.

If Chinese EV sales were to approach 200,000 units and the foregone anti-dumping tariff averaged £2,500 per vehicle, the sum involved would approach half a billion pounds.

Put another way, UK drivers in aggregate could be over-paying by that amount in 2026 if the absence of an anti-dumping tariff were reflected in lower retail prices than those charged in the EU. The Chinese-built EVs being bought by UK drivers should, logically, be markedly cheaper than similar cars purchased by their neighbours in France and Germany.

There is another reality. Even stripping out punitive import duties and shipping costs, Chinese EVs are far more expensive in the UK and Europe than in China. Competition in the domestic Chinese market is intense and heavily supported by state subsidies. The starting price for an MG4 there is under £7,500, and a top-of-the-range model can be bought in Beijing for under £11,000. It is little wonder that European manufacturers argue they need protection from Chinese competition. Nor is this concern confined to Europe: the US has effectively locked Chinese EV manufacturers out of the American market to protect its domestic industry, at least for now.

The UK is a (relatively) free market, and sophisticated Chinese manufacturers and importers are benefitting from the British Government’s half-baked policy. It is high time that UK policymakers and regulators woke up and brought pressure to bear on these manufacturers and distributors to act fairly towards UK consumers — or take action to compel them to do so.

In the meantime, prospective British buyers of Chinese-made EVs might be better off taking the bus.

Steve McCauley is a leadership coach, strategic advisor and journalist whose career spans media, government, digital technology and international development. A Senior Fellow at the University of Cambridge and certified executive coach, he has advised presidents, ministers, CEOs and global organisations on strategy, governance and creative thinking in complex environments. As Strategy & Creative Intelligence Correspondent for The European, he writes on leadership, governance, talent, innovation and the forces shaping European growth. 

READ MORE: ‘Is testosterone the new performance hack for executives?‘. Globally, testosterone replacement therapy is booming as more male professionals question whether declining hormone levels may be affecting their energy, mood and performance at work. But the answer lies in careful medical assessment rather than assumption, writes The European’s Strategy & Creative Intelligence correspondent, Steve McCauley.

Do you have news to share or expertise to contribute? The European welcomes insights from business leaders and sector specialists. Get in touch with our editorial team to find out more.

_{Main image: danzig_hamburg/Pixabay}