On October 12, 2026, the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration issued Announcement No. 29 of 2026, setting the VAT export rebate for new-energy vehicles to be cut from 13% to 9% effective April 1, 2027.
The adjustment covers 67 product categories listed in the NEV product schedule, spanning the main classes of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid (including range-extended) passenger cars, multi-purpose vehicles, buses and trucks. The timing is based on the export date noted on the customs declaration, so vehicles declared for export before April 1, 2027 will still enjoy the 13% rebate. Consumption-tax export policy for applicable products remains unchanged.
The move is the first standalone reduction in the NEV export rebate since the 2019 value-added-tax reform unified the rate at 13%. Analysts see the roughly 5.5-month buffer as a structural policy optimization rather than a wholesale tightening of export support.
Cui Dongshui, secretary-general of the CPCA, said the core aim is to curb low-price internal competition spilling overseas and push higher-quality going-global: under the 13% rebate, some makers relied on the rebate to cover losses on low-priced exports, compressing industry profits and inviting overseas anti-subsidy probes. Cutting four points narrows that arbitrage space and signals compliance during sensitive China-EU trade talks - a path consistent with the earlier rebate phase-downs for solar and batteries.
Image: Next-generation EV charging infrastructure. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).
