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When the EU launched an unreasonable "anti-subsidy investigation" on China's electric vehicles and threatened to wield a "tariff stick", Ola Kallenius, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Germany's Mercedes-Benz Group AG, called on the EU to reduce tariffs on electric vehicles in China in a recent interview.

According to the British "Financial Times" reported on the 12th local time, Kang Linsong believes that competition with Chinese car companies will help the European auto industry to produce better cars, if Europe chooses protectionism is "going the wrong way." He advocated an open market economy where competition speaks for itself.

Starting in October last year, the EU "sharpened the knife" and launched an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles to determine whether to impose "punitive" tariffs. Just a short time ago (March 5), the European Commission temporarily requested customs registration of pure electric vehicles (BEVs) imported from China in preparation for possible "retrospective tariffs".

According to the "Financial Times" reported on the 12th, the head of the German auto giant opposed this, he called himself a "contrarian" in the interview, that this time should be "the opposite way", calling on Brussels to reduce the existing Chinese electric car tariffs.

"We did not ask for this [anti-subsidy investigation]." "Our company has not asked for protection, and I believe the best Chinese companies have not asked for protection. They want to compete in the world like everyone else."

According to the report, Kang Linsong believes that the entry of Chinese car companies into Europe is a natural development of competition, and European companies should come up with better products and technologies, as well as more flexible mechanisms to cope with this challenge. In the long run, he said, competition from China would help European carmakers produce better cars.

"This is the market economy. Let competition work." He looks forward to embracing new opportunities in more open markets, "which have led to increased wealth, especially in the economic miracle of China, which has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty."

Kang Linsong pointed out that in the competition with Chinese car companies, the EU's "protectionist" actions are "going in the wrong direction." "If Europe thinks that protectionism is something that will bring us long-term success, I believe history tells us that is not the case," he said.

He added that there needed to be a "level playing field" between China and Europe and that both sides should "pay attention to creating economic win-win situations". "We live in a pragmatic world and realise that people have some expectations of the rules of a general market economy... But if we seek wealth amid rising protectionism, we are going down the wrong path."

Recently, the rise of China's auto industry has created a whirlwind in Europe and other markets. Within the EU, the French government has repeatedly encouraged the EU to wave a "trade stick" against Chinese electric vehicles, while many countries, led by traditional car power Germany, are strongly opposed to any such punitive measures, believing that any trade war will bring huge losses.

The Financial Times believes that because Strangis and Renault and other French car manufacturers in China business scale is not large, and German car manufacturers export many high-profit vehicles to China, a large part of their sales and profits depend on China, so German car companies to the EU launched anti-subsidy investigation reaction is more intense.

In this regard, Kang Linsong has repeatedly publicly expressed his opposition to EU tariffs and concerns about protectionism in the Western bloc.

Last month, at the annual results meeting of the Mercedes-Benz Group, Kang Linsson issued a direct warning that any increased EU protectionist measures against China would have a devastating impact on an economic region like Europe.

At the beginning of this year, Kang Linsong also noted that the auto industry faces the threat of rising protectionism at a time when supply chain integration is becoming more global than ever.

Semiconductor shortages and U.S. restrictions on some chip exports to China have helped push the auto industry to regionalize some purchases, but there are limits to that approach, he said.

"To believe that we can go back to a world where everything is for us and for us only... But that's not how mature industries work." He noted that the manufacture of any Mercedes-Benz car "involves almost five continents."

 The leapfrog development of China's automobile industry has provided high-quality and cost-effective products to global consumers. In the name of "de-risking", some countries have built "small walls" and tried to "trip others up" instead of "running faster". They seem to have won, but in fact they have lost their own long-term development and dragged down the progress and prosperity of the world.