Proposed Ban Could Be ‘Death Sentence’ for Chinese EVs in US

After officially imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle sales earlier this month, the US government is getting more serious about keeping Chinese-made vehicles out of the country. On Monday, the US Commerce Department proposed a new rule that would ban some China- and Russia-made auto parts and software from the US, with software restrictions starting in 2026.

The Biden administration says the move is necessary for national security reasons, given how central technology is to today’s increasingly sophisticated vehicles. In announcing the proposed ban, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo mentioned Internet-connected car cameras, microphones, and GPS devices. “It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how a foreign adversary with access to this information could pose a serious threat to our national security and the privacy of American citizens,” he said.

This move by the American government comes as China has greatly increased the number of affordable cars, especially electric ones that it manufactures and sells overseas. China’s auto sales grew by more than 30 percent in the first half of this year, ringing alarm bells in Europe and the US, where officials worry that the high cost of Chinese cars could overwhelm the domestic industry. The US and Europe had moved to make it harder and more expensive for China to sell its cars in those regions, but Chinese automakers responded by setting up production bases in Eastern Europe, Africa and Mexico—all of which could one day supply. the youngest to allow more Chinese designed and built cars into new Western markets.

However, the proposed rule focuses on safety rather than competition. Raimondo has raised the ire of foreign actors using hijacked vehicle technology to wreak havoc on America’s public roads. “Imagine if there were thousands or hundreds of thousands of Chinese cars connected to American roads that could be disabled immediately or simultaneously by someone in Beijing,” he said in February.

That scenario is not necessarily true, given that few Chinese and Russian firms currently provide automotive software or hardware in the US. The proposed ban on software and hardware use is a first step rather than a response to any immediate security threat, said Steve Man, global head of automotive research at Bloomberg Intelligence, a research and advisory firm. “The PRC and Russian automakers currently do not play a significant role in the US auto market, and American drivers are currently safe,” a senior Biden administration official told WIRED.

Because the law will apply to any connected car, not just electric ones, it will create an even stronger ban against China-made car technology. “If 100% tariffs on EVs made in China were a wall, the proposed ban on plug-in vehicles would be a death sentence for China EV Inc.’s plans to enter the US,” said Lei Xing, a former senior planner in China. Auto Review and an independent analyst say, the prospects of seeing Chinese EVs sold in the US in the next decade are “virtually zero.”