China's latest export rebate cut hits electric trucks and buses
The Oct. 12 notice also lists electric trucks, buses and small haulers used in factories and ports.
China's Ministry of Finance (财政部) and State Taxation Administration (税务总局) will cut the export rebate on value-added tax for what China calls new-energy vehicles to 9% from 13% from April 1, 2027, under a notice dated Oct. 12. The rebate returns value-added tax already paid on exported goods, and a lower rate means exporters get less of that tax back. The notice's product list reaches beyond cars, to electric buses, trucks and the small vehicles that move goods around factories, warehouses, docks and airports.
The list covers 67 product lines, most of them battery-electric and plug-in hybrid passenger cars as well as fuel-cell vehicles. Nine of the 67 are buses, trucks or industrial vehicles. They include battery-electric trucks that pull semi-trailers, and battery-electric buses with 10 seats or more. Off-road dump trucks with electric wheel drive are on it, too. So are electric tow tractors for short distances, including those used on railway platforms, and electric cargo carriers used in factories, warehouses, docks or airports. The list describes both as vehicles without lifting or handling equipment.
Buses and trucks are a small part of the trade so far. China exported 93,000 new energy commercial vehicles from January through September, up 45.5% from a year earlier, according to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (中国汽车工业协会, CAAM) reported by National Business Daily (每日经济新闻). By our calculation, that was about 2% of the 4 million new energy vehicles China exported in those nine months.
Under the October notice, the export date on the customs declaration sets the rate. Vehicles whose customs declarations show an export date before April 1, 2027, keep the 13% rate.
The cut is the latest step in a series from the same two agencies. A January notice scrapped export rebates on photovoltaic and some other products from April 1, 2026. It also cut rebates on batteries to 6% from 9% from April 1 through the end of 2026, and scraps them from Jan. 1, 2027.
Sources: 财政部 Ministry of Finance [1], [2], 财政部 税务总局 Ministry of Finance and State Taxation Administration (attachment 1), 每日经济新闻 National Business Daily
Editor: Ian Lamont
