When the European Union launched a probe into Chinese support for electric vehicles, the bloc’s carmakers braced for painful retaliation from the increasingly assertive superpower.
The dire reprisal hasn’t materialized, at least yet. Beyond some initial strong words from China, both the government and companies like BYD Co. and SAIC Motor Corp. have cooperated since the start of the subsidy investigation. The muted response points to the pressure China’s oversupplied EV market is under, made worse by the price war Tesla Inc. touched off over the last year.
