EU tariff U-turn to spare consumers extra bill for new electric cars

The European Union has bowed to pressure from European carmakers and the British government for a delay to the introduction of 10% export tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs), sparing buyers from paying thousands of pounds more for a new car. So-called ‘rules of origin’ apply to vehicles made in the bloc and sent to the UK – and vice-versa. Under the Brexit trade rules, carmakers on both sides of the Channel would have been forced to add the tariff to the price of most new electric vehicles from January. That was because their respective batteries would not have met the…