Chinese automakers lobby Beijing over EU hybrid export quotas, report says

Several Chinese automakers have gone to Beijing to discuss with regulators how the limited quota for hybrid vehicle exports to the European Union will be split among them, according to a Cailian report from 2 November cited by CnEVPost. The report cited multiple people familiar with the matter. It did not name the companies involved, the volumes each was seeking, or the criteria for allocation.

The stakes are simple arithmetic. "The total quota is limited, so each company will not receive a large export allocation. All the automakers are currently working to secure their share," one person familiar with the matter told Cailian, according to CnEVPost.

The talks come less than a month after China and the EU announced an understanding on hybrid vehicle trade. They are the most recent sign of how much administrative work sits behind that political announcement. Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic held talks in Beijing on 8 and 9 October, CnEVPost reported. After those talks, the two sides announced the understanding. China's Ministry of Commerce said on 12 October that the arrangement would allow growth from the 302,000 hybrid vehicles the EU imported from China in 2025. It also said China's allocation would be no lower than that of any other source of EU imports. The ministry did not disclose specific quotas or an implementation date at the time.

The numbers that have circulated since come from a single outlet. Bloomberg reported on 11 October, citing a proposal document it had seen, that China's hybrid export quota to the EU would be set at 350,000 vehicles in the first year. It would rise 6% annually from the second year, with the measures in place for four years and possibly taking effect as early as 1 December. The same report said the mechanism would cover both hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Bloomberg also noted the document did not say whether vehicles above the quota could enter the EU under additional tariffs. Nor did it say whether the quotas would act as hard import caps. CnEVPost's account of the Cailian report repeats those figures as background, not as confirmed policy.

The two sides have not described the deal the same way. Sefcovic said on 9 October that the understanding included halving Chinese HEV and PHEV exports to the EU, according to CnEVPost. He did not specify the baseline for that reduction. Beijing's 12 October statement, by contrast, framed the arrangement as allowing growth from 2025 levels. A 350,000-vehicle first-year quota would sit above the 302,000 hybrids the EU imported from China in 2025. That fits the Chinese description better than the halving language.

Hybrids matter to Chinese exporters because they were previously excluded from the EU's countervailing duties on China-made battery electric vehicles, which the bloc imposed in October 2024. Hybrid trade then became the new focus of automotive talks between Brussels and Beijing, CnEVPost reported.

Chery is the largest exporter among the Chinese groups covered in the report. For Chery, the quota question lands on top of a strong run. The company said on 1 November that group sales reached 295,934 vehicles in October, up 5.25% year on year, according to CnEVPost. Exports came to 200,618 units, up 58.67% and about 68% of the monthly total. NEV sales hit 140,893, a record and the seventh consecutive month above 100,000. In the first ten months, group exports totalled 1,751,766 vehicles, up 64.8% year on year.

Chery's European numbers show why allocation talks matter. The company said it sold 292,000 vehicles across 24 European countries in the first three quarters, up 182% year on year, CnEVPost reported. That included more than 146,000 NEVs, up 251%. It is also considering local production in Canada and plans to begin sales there in 2027, Bloomberg reported on 23 October. Its iCar brand intends to enter the UK as iCaur with the V27 in early 2027.

None of that answers the immediate question: who gets what. The Cailian report leaves the allocation criteria, the volumes sought and the outcome of the Beijing talks unstated. Neither the Chinese commerce ministry nor the European Commission has published a quota breakdown. Until one appears, the 350,000 figure remains a proposal described by Bloomberg, not a settled number.