BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany is set to abstain in Monday's vote by European Union member states on imposing provisional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, sources told Reuters on Friday.

The European Union is imposing provisional tariffs of up to 37.6% on EVs imported from China, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing in the EU's largest trade case yet.

Germany will abstain because the anti-subsidy investigation continues and negotiations between the EU commission and the Chinese government are ongoing, the sources said.

German carmakers, which sell a third of their cars a year in China, are worried about retaliation measures and fear a trade conflict with its second most important trading partner.

This first vote is not binding. At the provisional stage, the Commission has full power to impose duties, although it consults EU members and is supposed to take their positions into account.

This will be followed by a final vote at the end of the investigation, when the Commission can propose definitive duties, normally applying for five years.

Its proposal could be blocked if a qualified majority of the European Union's 27 members is opposed. A qualified majority needs 15 EU members representing 65% of the EU population to be in favour.