EU lowers planned tariffs on Chinese made Teslas

The European Union said on Tuesday that it will lower planned tariffs for Tesla vehicles imported to the bloc from China from 20.8% to 9% as it announced a number of reductions to planned import duties from other Chinese electric carmakers.

Back in June, the EU announced higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports, stating they benefitted "heavily from unfair subsidies" and posed a "threat of economic injury" to EV makers across Europe.

However, the EU commission revealed on Tuesday that it would make a "slight adjustment" to the proposed duty rates based on "substantiated comments" on its July decision.

The EU stated its decision meant Tesla would be granted its own lowered individual duty rate as an exporter from China and comes after chief executive Elon Musk made a "substantiated request" to the EU that planned tariffs on its China-made electric vehicles be recalculated to reflect specific subsidies it receives in China.

As of 1350 BST, Tesla shares were up 1.55% in pre-market trading at $226.31 each.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com