LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - The European Commission on

Thursday published the findings of its nine-month investigation

into China's electric vehicle market, giving insight into how it

calculated tariffs and the evidence it collected to support its

highest profile trade case.

The report details reluctance by the Chinese government and

state-owned automaker SAIC to cooperate with the

Commission's investigation into whether Chinese EV makers

benefit from unfair state support.

That justified imposing the top tariff rate of 37.6% on

SAIC, while fellow Chinese automakers BYD and Geely

face lower tariffs of 17.4% and 19.9% respectively to

reflect their cooperation.

The document accompanied the announcement of provisional

tariffs for Chinese-made electric vehicles of up to 37.6% which

come into effect on Friday, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing

which has threatened to retaliate.

It will likely form part of the Commission's defence if the

Chinese government complains to the World Trade Organization.

The Chinese government's tight control over its automakers

prevents them "from acting as rational market operators seeking

to maximise profits, and in fact forces them to act as an arm of

the government," the report says.

Thus, it concludes, the "threat of material injury" to

Europe's automakers "is clearly foreseeable and imminent".

The report covers similar ground to a longer one the

Commission released in April on the Chinese government's

interference in its economy and strategic industries that

analysts say lays the foundations for future trade cases as

Brussels toughens its stance on Beijing.

Subsidies given to Chinese automakers, the Commission found,

took the form of cheap loans, inexpensive land and direct

incentives for selling EVs.

They also received help with the cost of batteries, the

single most expensive part of an EV.

SAIC and Geely have access to batteries for "less than

adequate remuneration," and while BYD makes its own batteries,

it has access to subsidised battery materials, above all

lithium.

REVEALING BREAKDOWN

Among the most revealing sections is a breakdown of the core

types of government subsidies by company, which added together

form the basis of each company's duty.

Take SAIC: the EU estimates its subsidies total 34.4%.

That breaks down into 1.38% for loans from state-owned

banks, 8.27% for other forms of financing, 8.56% in the form of

grants, 2.28% in EV sales incentives, 0.67% for cheap land and

13.24% for under-priced batteries.

Subsidies in the same categories total 15.1% for BYD and

19.72% for Geely.

The Chinese government has complained that the Commission

sought an unprecedented amount of detailed information on

Chinese automakers' supply chains during its subsidy

investigation.

But the Commission catalogues lengthy back-and-forth

arguments in a number of areas where Beijing either declined to

cooperate or failed to provide more basic information, including

the number of EVs registered in China, or registrations by

brand, model and location.

"It is highly unlikely that the GOC (government of China)

does not have information on the number of BEVs (battery

electric vehicles) registered in China during a given period,"

the report said.

It also details evasion by SAIC, which said it could not

provide the information requested.

Chinese financial institutions that lend money to SAIC, BYD

and Geely "did not provide any creditworthiness assessment," so

the Commission did its own investigation, the report said.

The three automakers all have top-notch 'AAA' credit ratings

received from Chinese state-owned rating agencies - higher

ratings bring lower interest rates.

But because of problem areas such as their high

debt-to-equity ratios and use of loans to pay down debt, the

Commission found that their overall financial rating

corresponded to a 'B' rating. Investors consider bonds rated 'B'

as junk bonds.