Trump promises 100% tariffs on Chinese cars built in MexicoEV or not

Bengt Halvorson – Green Car Reports

13 hours ago

Former President Donald Trump announced he would slap a 100% tariff on cars built in Mexico by Chinese companies for sale in the U.S. market, double the previous tariffs he had sought to impose. apply.

In a Saturday campaign speech in Dayton, Ohio, Trump said that over a 30-year period, Mexico had taken away 34 percent of U.S. auto manufacturing activity.

China is building some massive factories where it's going to make cars in Mexico and it thinks it's going to sell those cars to the United States tax-free at the border, he said.

Trump then announced, in what appeared to be a direct address to Chinese President Xi Jinping, and a detail reported by Bloombergthat he intended to impose a 100% tariff on all these cars if elected.

Currently, cars imported from China are subject to a 25% tariff, while those from Mexico, made with Chinese parts, would only face a 2.5% duty.

Buick Envista 2023 (Chinese specifications)

They won't sell cars here, Trump said, resuming the conversation shortly after. And I will tell them that if they want to build a factory in Michigan, in Ohio, in South Carolina, they can, using American workers, they can't send Chinese workers here, which they do sometimes, but they won't build them in Mexico.

What Trump is proposing is not entirely new and comes after several factions of the Senate, Democratic and Republican, urged higher tariffs on Chinese vehicles and faster action, as the Biden administration studies the possibility. Earlier this month, three Democratic senators from auto-producing states warned against flooding artificially low prices of Chinese electric vehicles into the U.S. market, which would endanger the survival of the U.S. auto industry in his outfit. This came just days after Republican Josh Hawley proposed a bill that would effectively impose a 125% tariff on imported Chinese vehicles and a 100% duty on Chinese vehicles manufactured in Mexico.

BMW Group plant in San Luis Potos, Mexico

Mexico already builds many electric vehicles for the United States but he buys few. Among them, GM and Ford are already looking to Mexico for electric vehicle assembly, and BMW recently announced plans last year to build its next-generation Neue Klasse electric vehicles there.

Early in the administration, Biden issued an executive order on the electric vehicle supply chain and battery production, and turned to the Defense Production Act to boost production of critical materials earlier electric vehicles. This led to the Inflation Reduction Act, a multi-faceted piece of legislation that, on the vehicle and manufacturing front, will double electric vehicle sales in the United States by 2030 compared to previous forecasts, according to analysts in October.

2024 Polestar 2 single engine

Trends have revolved around Chinese vehicle imports compared to five or six years ago, when there seemed to be an unstoppable trend that U.S. and German automakers were planning to shift to more Chinese-assembled vehicles in a near future, especially in light of China's focus on electric vehicles. The Polestar 2 is the only electric vehicle made in China currently sold in the US market; Last week, Polestar also seemed to suggest that Polestar 3 models made in China would arrive this year before those made in the United States.

Trump did not really make a distinction in the tariff announcement depending on whether the vehicles concerned were electric or not. But earlier in the speech, he again appeared to criticize Biden's electric vehicle efforts, alliances with the UAW and electric vehicles in general. They want to do this all-electric nonsense where the cars don't go far, cost too much and are all made in China, he said.

Chinese automaker BYD has yet to confirm a factory in Mexico, but is scouting locations. BYD said it does not plan to sell electric vehicles in the United States.

Han's WORLD

According to a recent report from Automotive Week, BYD already offers four models in Mexico: the Han, the Tang, the Yuan Plus and the Dolphin Mini. The Dophin Mini starts at around $21,000 in 190-mile form or $23,000 with 252 miles of range.

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