China - November 01, 2024 Slovenia maintains support of Chinese-made EVs despite EU tariffs (Voice_over) Slovenia is a small country in central Europe, with a population of just over 2 million. It's known to have a progressive and eco-conscious outlook. That may be why Slovenia is one of the few EU countries that hasn't encountered a drop in EV sales. And while some European countries such as Germany and Sweden have phased subsidies for buying EVs, Slovenia has kept them. But it's not just environmental reasons that prompted Slovenia to vote against tariffs on Chinese made EV imports. (Sound_bite) Dejan Zidan, State Secretary, Slovenian Ministry of the Economy, Tourism, and Sport: "If we want to maintain a good standard of people in Slovenia and in Europe, we must have as many friends as possible, as many common allies as possible. We have to develop new industries and improve in the old ones and we cannot afford trade wars. In trade wars, everyone loses." (Voice_over) Enjoying a drive in a high-end Chinese electric SUV, Marko Femc, who runs one of Slovenia's biggest dealerships says the tariffs on Chinese EVs were inevitable. Amid a gloomy economic backdrop electric vehicle sales dropped 36 per cent across the EU last year, with more expensive European models seeing the sharpest falls. But Marko is not too concerned about the tariffs impact on his sales. (Sound_bite) Marko Femc, Chinese car importer: "It will impact, but not, let's say significantly. What will happen is that Europe will have more time for its car industry to adapt or try to survive these better quality and lower prices that is coming from the Chinese producers." (Voice_over) And this point is echoed by others watching this trade dispute. Some believe Chinese carmakers overtook their European counterparts in innovation, quality and value for money. (Sound_bite) Andrej Brglez, Director, Institute of Civilisation and Culture: "We fell asleep when it comes to development. China went in a direction that we did not think would be in our interests, and we have to find our own solutions, and, in this challenging global economic environment, we have to earn the trust of our customers so that they will also buy European cars." (Voice_over) With some of Europe's biggest carmakers joining consumer and environmental groups concerned about the impact of the current measures, negotiators from Brussels and Beijing are under pressure to navigate their way to a more constructive solution. [Restriction: No access Chinese mainland]