"Battery Information is a Corporate Technology Security Threat"
"Companies Provide 21GB of Data to Meet EU Requirements"
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) companies have criticized the European Union (EU) Executive Commission, the EU's executive body, for demanding excessive information during its anti-subsidy investigation. They claim that the investigation was used as a pretext to extract not only key battery technology information but also customers' personal data.
According to China's Pengpai News on the 19th, new energy vehicle companies from China and Europe held a closed-door meeting at China's Ministry of Commerce the previous day. The meeting was attended by representatives from four Chinese automobile companies, six European automobile companies, industry associations, and research institutions.
They opposed the EU's additional tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, while some Chinese companies argued that provisional tariffs on large European gasoline vehicles should be increased within the scope permitted by World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations against Europe.
In particular, the meeting saw strong condemnation that the EU had abused its authority by arbitrarily expanding the scope of the investigation. According to reports, the EU Executive Commission demanded detailed information from Chinese companies about battery manufacturing methods, raw material composition, and chemical components. They also investigated each company's production volume over the past five years, lists of fixed assets, input details of parts and raw materials, sales conditions and pricing strategies of models, as well as company customer names and contact information. Credit limits, loans, bonds, bank draft information, and minutes of shareholders' meetings, boards of directors, audit committees, and joint venture contracts were also included in the requirements.
Pengpai News pointed out that "battery information is the core of the electric vehicle industry," adding that "leakage of such information poses a serious threat to corporate technology security and will also affect industrial security within China." At the meeting, a Chinese representative asked the European side, "If you were requested by the Chinese government to provide such information, how would you respond?" and insisted that "the EU Executive Commission should not impose such coercion and must reconsider this issue."
Pengpai News explained that "this is the first investigation related to electric vehicles by the EU Executive Commission, so there are no precedents to refer to," and that "the scope of information requested has significantly expanded compared to what was previously demanded from companies." Furthermore, it criticized that "during the investigation, questionnaires were requested from a total of 204 companies, including three sample companies and their affiliates, and these companies submitted a staggering 21 gigabytes (GB) of information," adding that "additional investigations were conducted afterward, and some were immediately asked to supplement information on-site."
Earlier, on the 12th, the EU Executive Commission announced that based on the provisional conclusion of the anti-subsidy investigation on Chinese-made electric vehicles, it planned to notify Chinese authorities and target companies of additional provisional tariffs ranging from 17.4% to 38.1 percentage points. The EU is already imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles. The announced countervailing duty rates will be applied in addition to the existing tariffs starting next month. If approved by the 27 EU member states in the second half of this year, the measures will be confirmed for implementation over the next five years.
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