Chinese carmaker GAC began planning its European launch three years ago with no tariff worries and the idea of selling pure battery-powered cars, mostly supplied by its factories in China.
Now, as the state-owned company approaches the April launch of its Aion electric vehicle brand on the continent, it faces duties of more than 45 per cent, is planning a shift to selling tariff-free hybrid vehicles and is in talks with four EU member states to localise production in one of them.
“There was a gap between our planning and our actual . . . reality,” said Wei Haigang, president of GAC International, in an interview at one of its research centres on the outskirts of Guangzhou in southern China earlier this year. “But we are also making rapid adjustments to our actual plan.”