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A BYD Co. Atto 3 electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) on day two of the Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. 

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

China-made electric vehicles will make up more than a quarter of the EV sales in Europe this year, with the country’s share increasing by over 5% from a year earlier, according to a new policy analysis. 

About 19.5% of battery-powered EVs sold in the EU last year were from China, with close to a third of the sales in France and Spain constituting EVs shipped from the Asian country, the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) reported in a paper shared Wednesday. 

The share of made-in-China vehicles in the region is expected to rise to just over 25% in 2024, according to the T&E research, as Chinese brands such as BYD ramp up their global expansion

While most EVs sold in the EU are from Western brands such as Tesla, which manufactures and ships EVs from China, Chinese brands alone are set to account for 11% of the region’s market in 2024. That share could reach 20% by 2027, T&E predicted. 

The findings come as the European Commission probes subsidies given to electric vehicle makers in China to determine if they unfairly undercut local companies. Non-Chinese brands that ship from China, such as Tesla and BMW, could be included in the ongoing subsidy investigation. 

According to Tu Le, founder of Sino Auto Insights, incentives put in place in China in the early 2010s led to a surge in startups and increased battery cell capacity in the country, paving the way for affordable EVs.

The EU is focusing its China EV probe on production-side subsidies

“The EU and the US are so far behind because they don’t have quality EVs at affordable prices because the legacy automakers have only really recently focused on designing & engineering them,” he added.

T&E suggested it would take raising EV tariffs to at least 25%, from the current 10%, for “medium” electric cars such as sedans and SUVs from China to become more expensive than their EU equivalents, though compact SUVs and “larger cars” would remain slightly cheaper.

However, the policy group said this would also require Europe to become more self-sufficient in battery cell production for the domestic EV industry. 

“The conundrum they see themselves in is that they can’t build affordable (and profitable) EVs without Chinese batteries because the Chinese are so far ahead of both the EU & US on the mineral mining, refining and manufacturing sides,” said Sino Auto Insights’ Le. 

In response to policy risks associated with shipping made-in-China EVs to Europe, China-based manufacturers such as Tesla and BYD have ramped up manufacturing efforts in the continent. Tesla is seeking to expand its assembly plant in Germany, while BYD plans to build a factory in Hungary. 

“The aim [of tariffs] should be to localise EV supply chains in Europe while accelerating the EV push, in order to bring the full economic and climate benefits of the transition,” T&E said in their report. 

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Alphabet shares fall more than 7% on revenue miss, AI investment boost

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Alphabet shares fall more than 7% on revenue miss, AI investment boost

CEO of Alphabet and Google Sundar Pichai in Warsaw, Poland on March 29, 2022.

Mateusz Wlodarczyk | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Alphabet shares dropped more than 7% on Wednesday after the search giant fell short of Wall Street’s fourth-quarter revenue expectations and announced big spending plans for its ongoing artificial intelligence buildout.

The stock headed for its worst session in more than a year.

The company topped earnings estimates by 2 cents per share. Revenue came in at $96.47 billion, behind the $96.56 billion expected by LSEG. Alphabet’s revenue grew 12% overall from a year ago, while its YouTube advertising business, search business and services segment slowed year over year.

Alphabet also said it plans to spend $75 billion on capital expenditures as it builds out its AI offerings and races against megacap rivals to build out data centers and new infrastructure. The figure was much higher than the $58.84 billion expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.

Finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said the higher expenses will help “support the growth of our business across Google Services, Google Cloud and Google DeepMind.” She also said the spending will go toward “technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking.”

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The company expects capital expenditures to range between $16 billion and $18 billion. That was higher than the $14.3 billion estimate from FactSet.

JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth highlighted costs, capex and cloud revenue as the “culprits” for the stock’s post-earnings performance. Bernstein’s Mark Shmulik also noted that this is the third quarter that the stock move connects to Google’s cloud segment.

“If digital ad growth is akin to a long drive competition, then Google would be sitting comfortably here with strong Search and YouTube bombs down the fairway,” Shmulik said.

“But as the game shifts to the AI putting green, there’s little room for error with a slight cloud miss, a whopping CAPEX guide up to $75B for 2025, and lack of actionable operating leverage commentary leaves Google 3- putting for bogey,” he added.

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Teladoc Health to acquire Catapult Health in $65 million deal

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Teladoc Health to acquire Catapult Health in  million deal

Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Teladoc Health on Wednesday announced it will acquire the preventative care company Catapult Health in an all-cash deal for $65 million.

Catapult offers an at-home wellness exam that allows members to check their blood pressure, collect a blood sample, log other screening information and meet virtually with a nurse practitioner. Teladoc, a virtual care platform, said the acquisition will help it improve its ability to detect health conditions early.

The company said Catapult will operate within its integrated care segment after the deal closes. At JPMorgan’s health-care conference in January, Teladoc said it is actively working to grow membership and use of services within its integrated care segment.

“Catapult Health’s capabilities will help advance our strategy in meaningful ways — from giving more members access to convenient and impactful wellness and preventative care, to unlocking greater value for our customers,” Teladoc CEO Chuck Divita said in a statement.

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Catapult generated around $30 million in trailing twelve-month revenue as of the third quarter of 2024, Teladoc said. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.

Teladoc’s acquisition of Catapult comes after a tumultuous period for the company. When Teladoc acquired Livongo in 2020, the companies had a combined enterprise value of $37 billion. The stock has tumbled since then, and Teladoc’s market cap now sits under $2 billion.

In April, Teladoc announced the sudden departure of Jason Gorevic, who joined as CEO in 2009 and steered the company through the Livongo deal and the Covid-19 pandemic. Divita took over as chief executive in June and pledged to position the company for “long-term, sustainable success.”

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USPS says it will resume accepting inbound packages from China, Hong Kong

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USPS says it will resume accepting inbound packages from China, Hong Kong

USPS resumes accepting packages from China and Hong Kong

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it will resume accepting inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong, just hours after it suspended service from those regions.

“The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery,” the agency wrote in a notice posted to its website. The change is effective immediately.

USPS announced late Tuesday it would stop accepting parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts “until further notice.”

The move came after President Donald Trump on Saturday imposed an additional 10% tax on Chinese goods, as part of sweeping new tariffs on the country’s top three trading partners. Trump on Monday agreed to hold off on imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days.

As part of the tariffs, Trump also closed a nearly century-old trade loophole, called “de minimis,” which allows exporters to ship packages worth less than $800 into the U.S. duty-free. The suspension of de minimis is widely expected to impact upstart Chinese e-commerce companies Temu and Shein, which have relied on de minimis and grew in popularity in the U.S. due to their cheap clothing, furniture and electronics shipped directly from China.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has said it processed more than 1.3 billion de minimis shipments in 2024. A 2023 report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party found that Temu and Shein are “likely responsible” for more than 30% of de minimis shipments into the U.S., and “likely nearly half” of all de minimis shipments originating from China.

The rise of e-commerce and the influx of low-value packages that occurred alongside it prompted Congress in 2016 to raise the de minimis threshold from $200 to $800.

Yin Lam, an analyst at Morningstar, said late Tuesday the massive volume of daily de minimis shipments into the U.S. creates a “significant challenge” for USPS because “it is difficult to check all the packages – so it will take time.”

Critics have argued the trade loophole has allowed illicit drugs, such as fentanyl, to enter the U.S. through the mail. Trade officials have also said de minimis shipments are subject to less scrutiny, raising concerns around counterfeit and unsafe goods.

 CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.

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