A car dealer in Hungary has cautioned about the potential consequences of the European Union's vote to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, saying that this move could result in lower sales and increased price burdens for local consumers.
The European Commission announced Friday that it passed a vote to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese battery batter electric vehicles (BEVs), with ten member states backing the tariffs, 12 abstaining from the vote and five voting against the decision.
Hungary was one of the EU members that voted against the tariffs. In the country's capital city Budapest, local car dealer Mark Schiller expressed concerns and criticism over the EU decision.
"For us, it was a very strange thing from the EU to impose a tariff. I personally, it's my own opinion that I don't believe in this. This is just against China, Chinese BEV (battery electric vehicle) makers. I think there will be no benefit in this situation, so it's a bad way of getting hold of things. It's going to be very harmful then towards both economies," he said. Mark Schiller is the Strategic and Marketing Director of the family-owned car business Schiller Auto Family.
In January this year, his company signed a retail agreement with Chinese automaker BYD, becoming BYD's third partner in Hungary.
Schiller said the EU's punitive tariffs will not only influence the company's business, but harm the China-EU relationship.
"For us, it was a very strange thing from the EU to impose a tariff. I personally, it's my own opinion that I don't believe in this. This is just against China, Chinese BEV (battery electric vehicle) makers. I think there will be no benefit in this situation, so it's a bad way of getting hold of things. It's going to be very harmful then towards both economies," said Schiller.
At Schiller's auto store, local customers interested in buying a Chinese EV expressed concerns about rising car prices if the proposed tariffs are implemented.
"It would be more expensive. For a customer, it's not good. For a customer obviously, to buy the cheapest car, that's the best," a customer said.
Hungarian auto dealer warns EU tariffs on Chinese EVs could reduce sales, raise prices
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a focal point for both employers and job seekers during this year's spring recruitment season, as China's burgeoning AI and robotics industries are undergoing rapid development with high demand for quality human resources.
According to data from major online recruitment platforms in China, the number of job seekers in the AI sector increased by 33.4 percent year-on-year so far in the spring recruiment season. The year-on-year growth rate for recruitment of robot algorithm engineers and debugging engineers both exceeded 30 percent. From the perspective of job requirements, 52 percent of robot algorithm engineer jobs require a master's or doctoral degree, while 45 percent require more than three years of work experience.
At the same time, the market's demand for knowledge spreading and talent development of AI has surged, driving a year-on-year increase of 112.4 percent in recruitment for AI lectureships.
At job fairs across the country, human resources in algorithm engineering and robot research and development are all sought after by companies.
Leveraging their advantages of industrial clusters, cities like Hangzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province and Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province have become hubs for AI talent aggregation.
"This year, probably more than 90 percent of the jobs are technical posts, mostly related to algorithms, such as AIGC, large model, and natural language processing. With the rapid rise of AI this year, about half of the posts we have today are related to AI," said Wang Lin, official in charge of campus recruitment for a company in Zhejiang.
At the first large-scale offline talent acquisition event in Hangzhou so far this spring, 830 companies offered 21,000 positions, with half of them focusing on AI algorithms and AI large model development.
"Hardware-related posts generally offer salaries ranging from around 20,000 to 40,000 yuan (about 2,754 to 5,509 U.S. dollars) per month. With the addition of annual bonuses, the potential income for each individual may reach up to 600,000 to 700,000 yuan (about 82,638 to 96,412 U.S. dollars) per year," said Zhang Dongdong, recruitment manager of Hangzhou Yushu Technology Co., Ltd.
"I've been waiting in line for tens of minutes. I want to apply for a position in mechanical structure. Now, robotics has been a developing trend," said Zhang Chaogang, a job seeker.
In order to attract high-tech talents, various cities across the country have rolled out a series of preferential policies. The Chengdu High-tech Zone in southwest China's Sichuan Province has launched a "settlement allowance for AI talent" program, while the state-level East Lake High-tech Development Zone in Wuhan City of central China's Hubei Province, widely known as Optics Valley of China (OVC), has included AI skills training in the "New Craftsman Plan".
AI becomes focal point for both employers, job seekers during China's spring recruitment
