Brussels will stick to plans to impose hefty tariffs on China-made electric vehicles, the EU executive said on Friday, even after the bloc's leading economy Germany rejected them and exposed a rift over its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade.

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.

After the European Union voted to impose tariffs as high as 45 percent on Chinese EVs, automakers, lobbying groups and ministers called for negotiations to avoid a trade war with Beijing.