The China Association of Auto Manufacturers (CAAM) is helping firms affected by the EU's anti-subsidy probe into China-made electric vehicles organise themselves to actively defend their position, Xu Haidong, a senior official at the association said on Wednesday.

Xu did not name the firms involved in the move or specify how they would defend themselves.

CAAM rebuked the probe as an "obvious act of protectionism" that would hinder the growth of the global EV industry, shortly after the EU formally launched the investigation last week. (Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)