I live in a country with Chinese vehicles, and I would say that they were, initially, a bit crappy, a little less technically safe but cheaper.

Now though they’re pretty much even, especially BYD.

This is the confident opinion of one who has never owned a Chinese vehicle!

It’s too bad they can’t just let them into the USA. I believe US car manufacturers would learn to compete over time.

The propaganda of “Chinese vehicles are cheap and dangerous” only works when people don’t have the product in front of them.

Plus they’d have to pass whatever requirements in the US to be sold, the same ones that the ‘domestic’ manufacturers do.

Is this even a concern anymore? Haven’t we pretty much gutted any requirements that would actually matter / wouldn’t already exist in Chinese cars?

There are some American safety requirements that are based on protecting the safety of the driver at the expense of everything else that cheaper vehicles might not meet.

Could you give us some examples?

One example is a strong A-Pillar on a car–the metal post to the left and right of the windshield. Most manufacturers meet the standard by making it really beefy and wide. It protects the driver from collision but makes collision more likely by obstructing the driver’s vision.

Car safety standards in the US are actively hostile to anyone outside a car.

As they sell them in Europe we can be sure that that meet the more stringent European standards too. The idea that Chinese vehicles are all crap has passed its use by date.

Yeah from a performance and safety standpoint I don’t think there’s much difference. There is some argument that repair parts availability might be worse with Chinese vehicles, but the usual domestic manufacturers are also actively hostile to repairs now anyway so I don’t know how different that will really be.

Let’s do that imo

i have a BYD at home in Australia, i charge it 90% of the time off the solar panels on my roof. I travel SE Asia a fair bit (and work remotely) I am astounded by the number of Chinese EVs in Phnom Penh (I’m currently in Cambodia) as well as quite a few Mazda EVs (sedan and SUV) which i think are made in China anyway. So many brands, actually competitive :) I have seen one Toyota EV and lots and lots of used Prius.

Another thing is so many Bentley’s and Lamborghinis.

[China’s auto industry has] grown from holding 16 percent of global market share to 25 percent—with automotive analysts predicting that this value could reach one-third by 2030.

I would imagine that global market share would explode if they were allowed access to the American market. Especially with oil prices being what they are.

itif.org/…/explaining-the-relative-competitive-de…