India, the world’s third-largest car market, is planning to cut tariffs on cars imported from the European Union (EU) to 40% from as high as 110%, and this could be further lowered to 10% over time, Reuters reports.
India and the EU are expected to announce today the conclusion of protracted negotiations for the free trade pact, after which the two sides will finalise the details and ratify what is being called “the mother of all deals”. This pact could expand bilateral trade and help Indian exports of goods such as textiles and jewellery, which have been hit by 50% US tariffs since late August.
Sources have told the news agency that following trade talks with the 27-nation bloc, the Indian government has agreed to immediately reduce the tax on about 200,000 combustion-engined (ICE) cars a year with an import price over 15k euros (RM71k). However, this could be subject to last-minute changes. New Delhi currently levies high tariffs of 70% and 110% on imported cars.
EVs, however, will be excluded from import duty reductions for the first five years to protect investments by domestic players like Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors – after which, they will follow similar duty cuts, says the report.
If this turns out to be true, it bodes well for the likes of Volkswagen, Renault, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, all of which make cars in India (CKD) but have struggled to grow beyond a point partly because of high tariffs. European carmakers currently command less than 4% of the country’s 4.4-million-unit-a-year market (expected to swell to six million by 2030), which is dominated by Maruti Suzuki as well as Mahindra and Tata that together hold two-thirds.
One of the sources told Reuters that lower taxes would allow carmakers to test the market with a broader portfolio before committing to more CKD operations, besides being able to price imported vehicles lower.
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what’s the tariff imposed on Malaysian car going to India? is our government going to help Proton and Perodua to enter India market ? .. world no3 market u know ..
Proton setup shop in Pakistan and Bangladesh which it apparently thought was a bigger automotive market than India.
Proton has literally zero chances as the owner is Chinese. MG Motors owned by SAIC was forced to disinvest majority stakes in it. BYD wanted to invest $1billion in a new assembly line but got turned down.
So no Chinese direct or indirect investment is being allowed into India.
meanwhile in boleh land, our beloved govn put higher tax to those advanced tech, reliable, quality vehicle or product, instead to gving “au ta” junkies to the ppl.
While Malaysia still focused on inflating the price with APs as some previous guy said before APs can ensure EV cars sold here is safe Wow guess there goes what ever standard we set.