‘Made in China’ Vies for Europe’s Luxury Car Market

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

With the latest digital tricks, leather dashboards and champagne coolers — but sometimes at half the price — Chinese automakers are seriously threatening European manufacturers in the luxury-car segment. While it will be difficult to overcome the allure and heritage of Porsche and Mercedes, the draw for Chinese companies is some of the fattest margins in the industry and the challenge is real. Just listen to Ford CEO Jim Farley rave about the Xiaomi SU7 sports car he’s been driving for six months. After making significant inroads in China — tripling market share in the high-end segment in two years — producers led by BYD are taking the fight to Europe as profits and sales slump amid the struggle to pivot to the electric-car era. Meanwhile, the EU is set to slap tariffs on Chinese-made EVs this week as significant gaps remain with Beijing after eight rounds of negotiations to avoid penalties, a step Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said can’t be called protectionism.