(Yicai) July 5 -- SAIC Motor will request the European Commission to hold a hearing on its latest decision to impose a nearly 38 percent provisional tariff on the Chinese firm's battery electric vehicles, higher than the duties on cars made by BYD and Geely, the company said today.

There are errors in the EC's calculation of SAIC's subsidies, the Shanghai-based company pointed out in a press release today. For example, the commission included the allowance offered to Chinese consumers to buy BEVs in the calculation, it explained.

The executive arm of the European Union yesterday announced its updated provisional countervailing duties on SAIC, lowering it to 37.6 percent from the planned 38.1 percent after receiving SAIC's earlier correction request.

The results of the nine-month investigation stipulate that BYD's BEVs will carry an additional tariff of 17.4 percent while the number is 19.9 percent for Geely. Other Chinese BEV manufacturers that are cooperative will have tariffs of 20.8 percent and those that are not will suffer a rate of 37.6 percent.

SAIC said that in the investigation process, the commission ignored some information submitted by the auto firm, and made its decision based on the assumption that SAIC is not cooperating. The probe involves sensitive commercial information as it, for example, asked SAIC to reveal the chemical formula of its batteries so the scope goes beyond a normal investigation, it explained.

In the past decade, SAIC spent almost CNY150 billion (USD20.6 billion) on research and development, securing over 26,000 effective patents, it noted. Evidently, the reason why MG-branded cars, developed by SAIC, are so popular in Europe is the brand's core technological competitiveness. SAIC objects to artificially set up BEV trade barriers and calls for market order based on fair competition, it added.

Editor: Emmi laine