Chinese EVs have been a hot topic as of late, and for good reason – thanks to years of government subsidies, domestic mining of raw materials, and heavy incentives for buyers, those models are currently selling – in some cases – for less than $10,000. This has caused quite a bit of alarm on the part of automakers like Ford, which admits that it isn’t ready to compete with cheap Chinese EVs if they make it to American soil, as well as the Biden Administration, which considers such models a threat to national security and is exploring the possibility of raising tariffs or blocking imports altogether. Now, another government official – Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown – has stated that he believes Chinese EVs should be banned as well.
“Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry,” Brown said in a statement. “Ohio knows all too well how China illegally subsidizes its companies, putting our workers out of jobs and undermining entire industries, from steel to solar manufacturing. We cannot allow China to bring its government-backed cheating to the American auto industry. The U.S. must ban Chinese electric vehicles now, and stop a flood of Chinese government-subsidized cars that threaten Ohio auto jobs, and our national and economic security.”
Brown has several reasons to worry about the possibility of cheap Chinese EVs making it to our shores, including the fact that his home state is also home to the Ford Ohio Assembly plant. There, The Blue Oval builds and will continue to build a host of models including certain configurations of the Ford E-Series, the Ford Super Duty, and soon, perhaps even the second-generation Ford E-Transit, too.
In the meantime, Ford is scrambling to develop its own line of cheap EVs, which will start with a crossover that’s slated to launch in 2026 with a $25k price tag. This particular model was designed specifically to compete with Chinese EVs, in fact, and the idea for such an offering actually stemmed from a trip that CEO Jim Farley and CFO John Lawler took to that some country some time ago.
We’ll have more on the topic of Chinese EVs soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
Banning Chinese vehicles outright will only produce a tit-for-tat response from the Chinese. Given that all Chinese vehicles enjoy an enormous labor cost advantage, strikes me that the simple solution is to apply a labor cost adjustment to bring the price of these vehicle in line with building them in the US with American workers would cost. Setting up assembly plants in Mexico doesn’t solve that problem.
It’s Definitely NOT labor costs. That represents only 5-8% of a vehicles overall cost to build. Facts. Vote smart in Nov is wiser move!
Middle class has a tough time affording American made autos or trucks anymore. I’ll keep driving ICE’s until government or American auto manufacturers start selling EV’s for the $25K that Ford is supposedly targeting. Try buying a new vehicle when retired and living on Social Security.
Ford has plans for some excellent low cost EVs & hybrids in ’25. They’ve delivered so far w/ the outstanding Maverick hybrid truck. Fastest selling vehicle 2yrs straight. Owners love em!
Anything from a hostile foreign power should be banned
Absolutely 100%. 💯
Whatever happened to let the consumer decide what they want. If car companies want to compete in the EV market build a product that the consumer wants, so long as it is not a risk national security. Otherwise the taxpayer will end up subsidizing inferior auto manufacturers. Seems to me we have been there and done that.
I think all Chinese products should be banned including Ford products made in China!
Comment from Ohio, Sherrod Brown was talking up the dumocrats spending three years ago like it was benefitting Ohio. Now that he is up for reelection, he is talking like he is our best friend. He tries to play both sides, not much different than our RINO governor dumwine. This year is our chance to replace them both.
As opposed to Jaydot Vance, who sucks up to Peter Thiel and Vladimir Putin?
Ban Chinese vehicles! They can’t be trusted.
Unfortunately, this would be exactly the wrong move. We need to compete with China internationally. In order to do that, we must compete at home as well as abroad. The main advantage the Chinese now have are cheaper metal for batteries and a head start on research that has led to key patents. These can be addressed, by investment and innovation. Banning their imports is just sticking our heads in the sand.
The main advantage that China has is unpaid slave labor, no regard for pollution controls, a near exclusion of foreign entry into their markets, a fondness for IP theft vs innovation, and a government that controls everything and doesn’t care about companies making a profit as long as they can drive foreign competitors out of business.
We should be building an international coalition to ban imports from China.
So the Chinese are bad for subsidizing the car makers. But when Washington gives away $7500 (subsidizing) per car, then that’s OK?
Subsidizing an industry by providing them slave labor is a bit different than a tax incentive.