The previous tariff on EV’s from China was an added 25% tax to “level the playing field for American-made EV’s”. That tariff was raised to 100% as of May 2024, so I wondered what kind of cars are being made in China, that would be doubled in price by this tariff increase?
I am really amazed at the variety of cars I found from China that I didn’t even know existed. I have just written an article about BYD after I saw on the news that they have recently passed Tesla as the largest manufacturer of EV’s on Earth (to see that article, click here). I just wanted to see which BYD’s people were buying, and if they might be coming to the US soon. I was very surprised at the variety of cars that BYD makes.
During my search to see all the different models that BYD makes, I kept coming across other interesting EV’s from car companies that I had never even heard of. The world population is roughly 8.1-Billion, and the population of China is about 1.4-Billion, so…more than 1 out of 8 people in the world are Chinese. The last four decades have seen China expanding and diversifying their manufacturing base. Not only did millions of Chinese employees want to buy new EV’s, but China also wants to export EV’s to the entire world.
Tesla and Rivian do not currently make a small EV, and the most affordable small American EV is the Chevy Bolt. The Tesla Model-3 and the Rivian R3 are not “large”, but they are larger than the Bolt, and both are significantly more expensive. The BYD “Seagull” 5-door hatchback EV has been mentioned on the internet as a small EV that US manufacturers fear. The Base model is supposedly $12,000, but once you add shipping plus the 100% $12,000 tariff, you arrive at $26,000 plus state and federal sales taxes.
And it doesn’t end there. Ever since the Covid economy, car sales have been down, so US car dealers have only been ordering the more profitable “fully loaded” models, which could tack on another $10,000 of markup to the Seagulls price ($36,000?). Some EV’s have qualified for a $7,500 tax incentive, but that might only apply to US-made EV’s.
