(Yicai) Feb. 11 -- BYD, the Chinese carmaker that overtook Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric vehicles last year, has become one of the latest companies to file a lawsuit against the US government over import tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Four of BYD’s subsidiaries in the United States filed the lawsuit in the US Court of International Trade on Jan. 26, pointing out that “the text of IEEPA does not employ the word ‘tariff’ or any term of equivalent meaning.”

Shenzhen-based BYD is seeking a full refund of all IEEPA duties it has paid, including interest, arguing that the tariffs were imposed without proper legal authority and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Since US President Donald Trump began his second term in February last year, the United States has imposed sweeping import tariffs under the IEEPA on goods from nearly all countries, including those from which BYD exports cars to the US.

The automaker joins more than 1,000 other firms, including Costco Wholesale, Goodyear, Toyota Motor, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, that have filed lawsuits against the US government over IEEPA tariffs.

BYD outsold Tesla globally last year for the first time. Its sales of pure electric cars soared 28 percent to 2.3 million vehicles, while Tesla’s fell 8.6 percent to 1.6 million.

The company’s US business operations include its headquarters in Los Angeles, a forklift center in Rancho Dominguez, an energy storage network, and an electric bus factory in Lancaster, which still relies on the import of certain components for assembly operations.

Editor: Futura Costaglione