German SUVs are becoming more expensive for Chinese customers. BMW 
wants to raise its prices in China because of the increased toll on US cars. Currently, the company is still calculating the “necessary price increases” in this context. At the moment, however, it still remains at the current list prices for the dealers. The new prices will be published later.
China had one on Friday in response to US punitive tariffs Raising tariffs for cars from the US to 40 percent announced , For the rest of the world, however, Beijing lowered tariffs from 25 to 15 percent as of July 1st.
BMW builds in its largest plant in Spartanburg in the US (state of South Carolina) the cars of SUV models X3 to X6, which are also exported to China. Overall, BMW delivers around 100,000 per year SUVs from Spartanburg to China.
Also competitor Daimler has problems with Beijing’s tariffs on US-made cars. In mid-June, the Stuttgart lowered its annual forecast for the operating results of the group, referring in particular to the effect of Chinese tariffs. Daimler is building large Mercedes-Benz SUVs at the US plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and is also exporting these cars to China. The increased import tariffs in China would lead to a smaller sales than planned, it was said in the profit warning. In addition, the higher costs could not be fully passed on to the customers.
Volkswagen is hardly affected by the tariff dispute between the US and China so far. In the US, VW is building the Passat and the new SUV Atlas for the North American market. Golf and Jetta manufactures Volkswagen in Puebla, Mexico. The subsidiary Audi produces the SUV Q5 in San José Chiapa, Mexico, but also builds it in China.
Chinese build battery cell factory in Thuringia
BMW is the first customer of a new one Battery cell factory which will build the Chinese manufacturer CATL in Thuringia , The contract for the major project was signed on Monday on the sidelines of the German-Chinese intergovernmental consultations in Berlin. BMW also forgave a billion-dollar contract to the Chinese. The hope is that other German car companies will follow.
Because of the rapidly growing number of electric cars In Europe, the demand for batteries and battery cells will increase rapidly in the coming years. VW, Daimler and BMW buy cells in Asia and then build them themselves to big batteries for their electric cars together. The Federal Government and trade unions fear that they will be over-dependent on Asian suppliers and have been pressing for some time for a national or at least European solution.
By 2022, CATL plans to invest around 240 million euros in the plant in the “Erfurter Kreuz” industrial area and create 600 new jobs there. In the long term, according to information from the German Press Agency, up to 1,000 jobs could be created.