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Never seen these cool Chinese EVs in the US. Is the US market closed to Chinese EV?

Turskarama 3y ago
Not closed, but the tax credits system is designed to heavily incentivize buying American made and was in part designed to prevent Chinese cars taking over America. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/business/electric-vehicles-tax-credits.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/business/electric-vehicle...
giobox 3y ago
As other comment mentions, the tax credit system makes it harder for them to compete with a China-built product. BYD have had some successes selling electric buses in the US though (the tax credit applies to consumer vehicles): https://en.byd.com/news/byd-receives-largest-battery-electric-bus-order-in-u-s-history/ https://en.byd.com/news/byd-receives-largest-battery-electri... https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/30/byd-cars-arent-in-the-us-yet-but-its-electric-trucks-buses-have-been-serving-americans-for-years/ https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/30/byd-cars-arent-in-the-u... That said, I also think politics in the US will make it much more unlikely we see significant inroads into consumer vehicles here. With cars like the BYD Seal and especially the MG 4, European car makers are getting very concerned about competing against them in their domestic markets. The MG 4 is already the 2nd best selling EV in the UK etc, and is extremely price competitive vs a Tesla Model 3 or a VW ID 3, as one example. In many cases they are likely just one model refresh away from offering a product as good as a typical European manufacturer for less cash, the speed at which Europe has gone from no Chinese car sales at all to them starting to be a threat is pretty incredible by historical standards of the industry. I still think the designs aren't always to European tastes, but the gap gets narrower all the time and one can't ignore the prices. Many of them now have Europe based design studios to fix this. A lot of Chinese comeptitors also don't have the baggage of having to wind down a huge ICE business and can just focus on making good EVs, much like the advantage Tesla has had over legacy US automakers in the EV space. https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/mgs-european-sales-double-first-11-months https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/mgs-european-sales-do... Personally, I think it's just a matter of time before China built EVs dominate significant segments of the European car market, as strange as it may seem now.
- bryanlarsen 3y ago
  Especially if you consider the Chinese-owned Volvo brand as Chinese. The new EX30 looks like it will sell gangbusters.
  - giobox 3y ago
    The Volvo EX30 is right now only manufactured in China, and is built on a Chinese car platform (Gheely SEA). It is a Chinese car. I also think that this is likely to sell incredibly well in Europe. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Experience_Architecture_platform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Experience_Archite...
- agnosticmantis 3y ago
  Thanks, this clarifies it a lot.
gemstones 3y ago
China is closed to us! Not super surprising from that lens. They make nice EVs, though. It's political suicide to entertain making things easy for China, particularly in auto manufacturing, where there are several big union voting blocs that will look very dimly on allowing their products entry.

Not closed, but the tax credits system is designed to heavily incentivize buying American made and was in part designed to prevent Chinese cars taking over America. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/business/electric-vehicles-tax-credits.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/business/electric-vehicle...

giobox 3y ago

As other comment mentions, the tax credit system makes it harder for them to compete with a China-built product. BYD have had some successes selling electric buses in the US though (the tax credit applies to consumer vehicles): https://en.byd.com/news/byd-receives-largest-battery-electric-bus-order-in-u-s-history/ https://en.byd.com/news/byd-receives-largest-battery-electri... https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/30/byd-cars-arent-in-the-us-yet-but-its-electric-trucks-buses-have-been-serving-americans-for-years/ https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/30/byd-cars-arent-in-the-u... That said, I also think politics in the US will make it much more unlikely we see significant inroads into consumer vehicles here. With cars like the BYD Seal and especially the MG 4, European car makers are getting very concerned about competing against them in their domestic markets. The MG 4 is already the 2nd best selling EV in the UK etc, and is extremely price competitive vs a Tesla Model 3 or a VW ID 3, as one example. In many cases they are likely just one model refresh away from offering a product as good as a typical European manufacturer for less cash, the speed at which Europe has gone from no Chinese car sales at all to them starting to be a threat is pretty incredible by historical standards of the industry. I still think the designs aren't always to European tastes, but the gap gets narrower all the time and one can't ignore the prices. Many of them now have Europe based design studios to fix this. A lot of Chinese comeptitors also don't have the baggage of having to wind down a huge ICE business and can just focus on making good EVs, much like the advantage Tesla has had over legacy US automakers in the EV space. https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/mgs-european-sales-double-first-11-months https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/mgs-european-sales-do... Personally, I think it's just a matter of time before China built EVs dominate significant segments of the European car market, as strange as it may seem now.

bryanlarsen 3y ago
Especially if you consider the Chinese-owned Volvo brand as Chinese. The new EX30 looks like it will sell gangbusters.
- giobox 3y ago
  The Volvo EX30 is right now only manufactured in China, and is built on a Chinese car platform (Gheely SEA). It is a Chinese car. I also think that this is likely to sell incredibly well in Europe. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Experience_Architecture_platform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Experience_Archite...
agnosticmantis 3y ago
Thanks, this clarifies it a lot.

gemstones 3y ago

China is closed to us! Not super surprising from that lens. They make nice EVs, though. It's political suicide to entertain making things easy for China, particularly in auto manufacturing, where there are several big union voting blocs that will look very dimly on allowing their products entry.