The European Union voted on Friday to impose tariffs as high as 45% on electric vehicles from China, threatening a broader trade conflict with Beijing which has already vowed to protect its companies.

European Union member countries agreed Friday to proceed with the imposition of tarrifs on Chinese electric vehicles exactly one year after launching a probe into whether Beijing was subsidizing its domestic EV industry.

The European Union will press ahead with hefty tariffs on China-made electric vehicles, the EU executive said on Friday, even after the bloc's largest economy Germany rejected them, exposing a rift over its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade.