China vows to regulate ‘irrational’ competition in EV industry

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BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s cabinet on Wednesday pledged to regulate what it called “irrational” competition in the country’s electric vehicle industry, vowing to strengthen cost investigation and price monitoring, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The cabinet meeting, presided by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, was held as a two-year price war in the world’s largest auto market only intensifies.

China will focus on promoting the high-quality development of the electric vehicle industry and implement comprehensive measures in both the short- and long-term to address the “phenomenon of irrational competition” in the sector, CCTV quoted the cabinet as saying, without giving further details.

The cabinet will also urge the main automakers to fulfil commitments on supplier payment terms and promised to help them boost competitiveness through technological innovation and quality improvement.

Industry regulators and executives have previously warned of excessive competition and called on automakers to halt the bruising price war which they say threatens the sector’s health and sustainable development.

Concerns about oversupply persist, with new vehicles being shipped overseas as “used” since 2019, according to a Reuters report in late June.

Separately, the cabinet meeting discussed boosting domestic consumption, with policymakers vowing to systematically remove unreasonable restrictions that hinder household spending and optimise policies for a consumer goods trade-in program.

(Reporting by Shi Bu, Ethan Wang, Yukun Zhang and Ryan Woo;Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Kirsten Donovan)