The European Union plans to cap imports of Chinese hybrid cars at 350,000 a year from December, under a safeguard that would formally apply to hybrid imports from all countries, with China’s quota no smaller than any other supplier’s, Bloomberg reported, citing a document outlining the measures.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Monday the two sides had agreed on what it called an “upward arrangement” built on 2025, when the EU imported 302,000 hybrids from China.
The arrangement ensures “export space and stable growth” for Chinese companies, the ministry said.
The two accounts are the first indications of how the understanding Brussels and Beijing announced on Friday would work in practice.
Neither side had disclosed a volume, a mechanism or a start date when the talks ended.
The Reported Cap
The quota would allow 350,000 Chinese hybrid imports in the first year and rise by 6% a year from the second year, Bloomberg reported.
The measure would run for four years and could take effect from December 1.
The limit would formally cover hybrid imports from all countries, a way of meeting the World Trade Organization’s rule against discrimination, with China’s allocation at least as large as that of any other exporter, according to the report.
On those terms, the ceiling would rise to about 371,000 in the second year, for a total of roughly 1.5 million over four years, by EV’s calculation.
The first-year figure is 15.9% above China’s 2025 shipments, by EV’s calculation.
The report did not say what would apply to imports above the cap.
Safeguards of this kind usually take the form of tariff-rate quotas, which leave imports within the quota at the normal duty and charge more on anything above it.
A day earlier, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the discussions, that Šefčovič had told officials the measures would cut Chinese hybrid imports to about 400,000 a year from around 800,000 expected in 2026.
The reported 350,000 first-year cap would be 43.8% of that 2026 estimate. The European Commission has not published the measure.
Beijing’s Version
China’s Commerce Ministry set out its account in a statement answering a question about what it called foreign media speculation over the volumes involved.
“Regarding hybrid vehicles, the two sides emphasised and confirmed three basic principles,” a ministry spokesperson said.
The first, “respect for facts,” rested on EU statistics showing imports of Chinese hybrids rising from 107,000 in 2024 to 302,000 in 2025.
“On the basis of 2025, the two sides reached an upward arrangement, ensuring export space and stable growth for Chinese companies,” the spokesperson said.
The second principle was non-discrimination.
“Any measure will not specifically target Chinese products, still less treat Chinese companies in a discriminatory way,” the spokesperson said, adding that “the quota China obtains will not be lower than that of any other EU import source.”
The third was compliance with WTO rules.
China “reserves all rights under the WTO framework, including resorting to dispute settlement and requesting trade compensation,” the ministry said.
The statement did not give a quota figure, a duration or a start date.
Two Ways of Counting
The Chinese account describes growth, while Brussels described a cut.
“This opens the prospect of cutting China’s exports by more than a half,” Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, said in Beijing on Friday.
He said the aim was to reduce exports to the EU by several million cars over four years.
The EU measured that reduction against projected imports if nothing changed, not against current shipments, according to accounts of the Commission’s briefing in Beijing.
Chinese hybrid shipments to the EU were running far above the 2025 level before the talks.
Monthly imports rose from about 3,800 in October 2024 to about 50,000 in July 2026, according to the Financial Times.
Kept up for a full year, July’s pace would equal about 600,000 cars, about 70% above the reported first-year quota, by EV’s calculation.
Chinese brands held 14% of Europe’s hybrid market and 25% of its plug-in hybrid market in the first half of 2026, both up from 2% in 2024, according to ACEA, the European carmakers’ association.
What Is Still Unknown
Neither side has said whether extended-range electric vehicles count as hybrids under the arrangement.
Neither has said how the quota would be divided between companies, or whether cars built in China by non-Chinese brands would count against it.
EU leaders are due to discuss the understanding at a European Council summit in Brussels on October 15 and 16.
Šefčovič said on Friday that he first needed the leaders’ endorsement before explaining how the reduction would work.
How It Got Here
Hybrids were left out of the countervailing duties the EU imposed on China-built battery-electric cars in October 2024 and still enter the bloc at the standard 10% tariff.
Handelsblatt reported in June that the Commission had prepared an anti-subsidy case against Chinese plug-in hybrids.
Brussels asked Beijing in September to hold Chinese hybrids to about 15% of the EU market, according to the Financial Times, and Germany’s Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil called for tariffs on Chinese plug-in hybrids the same day.
China’s Commerce Ministry rejected the request on September 18, calling so-called voluntary export restraints a serious violation of WTO rules.
Monday’s statement does not describe the arrangement as a voluntary restraint, and instead refers to a quota for China that would be no lower than any other source’s.
Who Ships the Hybrids
SAIC, BYD and Chery accounted for more than 90% of Chinese hybrid sales volume in the EU, and hybrids made up more than half of their European sales, according to Jefferies analysts cited by Reuters.
Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume welcomed the understanding at an event in Paris on Sunday, on the eve of the motor show, according to Reuters.
“Those who sell here should compete under comparable conditions and create jobs and value here in Europe too,” Blume said.
EVs and Next Steps
On fully electric vehicles, the ministry said the EU would continue its procedures on company-by-company price undertakings, the minimum-price commitments Chinese exporters can offer in place of paying the duties.
The Commission has accepted one such undertaking so far, for the Volkswagen group’s China-built Cupra Tavascan, in February.
The two sides agreed to hold a ministerial video call in January and the third meeting of their trade consultation mechanism in March 2027.
