7/30/2026 at 7:49:06 PM
How much is this car merely a rabble of Chinese parts made to look like an indigenous Mexican car? I see this as a Chinese ploy to work around the American import tariffs by praying on Mexican national pride for a so-called "national car industry."If this ploy works you'll see larger versions of this car hitting the roads which look suspiciously like Chinese BYD and SAIC EVs. All these will of course be exported North of the Border, courtesy of NAFTA.
I hope the government stops this attempt dead in its tracks before it starts to hurt our car industry.
by hn_submit
7/30/2026 at 8:37:47 PM
Detroit doesn't change its ways until it's been hit in the balls with a baseball bat once or twice. The baseball bat is smaller, cheaper, more efficient cars in the 70s and smaller, cheaper EVs today.by rickydroll
7/30/2026 at 8:50:19 PM
At least the U.S. will still have a car industry in the coming decades. Europe is unable to hold back the tide of Chinese EV imports (due to different national interests, squabbling and corruption) and this will most likely result in the loss of a large part of their industrial base.The only way to stop the Chinese is to do it cold turkey: slap a huge import tariff on their wares and at the same time cutting off al avenues to work around it.
There are plenty of options for Western manufacturers in Asia. Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia would all be more than happy to do business. But Western companies have simply become lazy and are no more than marketing organizations which sell Chinese made wares as their own.
by hn_submit
7/30/2026 at 8:19:52 PM
> How much is this car merely a rabble of Chinese parts made to look like an indigenous Mexican car? I see this as a Chinese ploy to work around the American import tariffs by praying on Mexican national pride for a so-called "national car industry."Isn't a lot of the Mexican car industry foreign brands building their cars in Mexico with parts from wherever they come from? Lots of parts would be sourced in Mexico, but certainly not everything.
If you can get a high volume car assembled in your country, that's a win. Some, but not all of the parts production will move towards where assembly happens, because it simplifies logistics. That's a win too.
Would it be a bigger win for everything to be designed and made in your country? Yeah, probably, but it's not likely to happen, so take what you can get?
by toast0
7/30/2026 at 8:23:16 PM
The American car industry has had over 50 years since the oil embargo to get its act together. How much more time do you want?America has no leverage at this time ban Mexico/China if you want only Americans will be hurt in the crossfire.
by Danox
7/30/2026 at 8:02:29 PM
Canada and Mexico are both allowing Chinese EVs in. US automaker export TAM will only decrease over time, and eventually, they will be boutique automakers serving only the US market. BYD intends to be the world's largest automaker in five years, and China currently has the capacity to produce ~25M EVs per year (~25% of global annual light vehicle sales, as of this comment). The US built ~1M EVs last year, for comparison.https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/10/china-byd-c...
> I hope the government stops this attempt dead in its tracks before it starts to hurt our car industry.
There is literally nothing the US gov can do to stop this. On the contrary, their actions have accelerated this. Masterful gambit.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/seekin...
https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/electric-vehicl...
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-07-15/china-... | https://archive.today/CXhGr
The US killed its own auto industry by shielding it from Chinese competition and rolling back EV incentive policy, to protect its profits of large combustion SUVs and trucks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/magazine/electric-cars-am... | https://archive.today/sENe1
> “We’ve reached a genuinely existential moment,” Ezell told me. In a best-case scenario, Detroit manages to meet it by crafting a viable, long-term E.V. strategy while also servicing the still dependably lucrative existing market for ICE trucks. In the worst, it retreats onto what the economist Susan Helper calls a “shrinking island of ICE,” churning out outlandishly large trucks and not much else. At which point, the obsolescence of the mighty U.S. automobile industry — a sector once inextricably associated with American know-how and economic might — would be all but guaranteed. As Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, recently acknowledged in a statement that could apply to any member of the Big Three, “If we don’t put our chips on the right number and the right color, Ford could maybe not exist.”
by toomuchtodo
7/30/2026 at 8:13:49 PM
Canada is only allowing a very limited number of Chinese EVs to be sold without 100% tariff markup. Mostly to put up a token resistance to Trump's advances on their sovereignty.The U.S. has already stated that none of these EVs can be exported to the continental U.S. NAFTA-be-damned. They may not even cross the border if some Congressmen have their way.
So it seems logical that the next Chinese ploy is to become a major shareholder in a so-called Mexican car manufacturer which is merely a front to export Chinese EVs to the U.S.
I also predict we'll see large numbers of VinFast EVs (from Vietnam) being exported to the U.S. in the coming years. Vietnamese companies are mostly covertly owned and controlled by Chinese counterparts.
by hn_submit
7/30/2026 at 8:46:29 PM
"Mostly to put up a token resistance to Trump's advances on their sovereignty"Canada originally imposed the 100% tariff against Chinese EVs in lockstep with the US to protect North American automakers. In return China retaliated with massive tariffs on Canadian agricultural products. Which, I mean, is 100% fair: The argument against Chinese cars -- the subsidized nonsense -- is farcical, and you could 100% claim that almost every American manufacturer is subsidized by the military, and of course companies like Tesla are basically welfare cases.
The leaders of great American capitalism sure hate capitalism.
Anyways, if the automakers aren't willing to stand up to the pedo for Canada -- which has been producing cars as long as the US has, and buys far more cars than it makes -- then we're happy to move on from them and let them die. Why endure agricultural tariffs and trade friction if it isn't our fight anymore?
It isn't "token resistance", it's playing our own trade game, for our own benefit, and Canada is going to be doing a lot more of it. I know how offensive this is to American exceptionalists who have a serious case of main character syndrome.
And as the Chinese automakers start setting up dealer and support networks, they can negotiate on increasing the quota, making it worth both of our interests.
It's actually funny that Greer, Trump's trade imbecile, recently moped and whined about Canada "globalizing". Gosh, why don't we just throw in with that criminal empire of bullies and fools?
"NAFTA-be-damned"
Foreign products imported into Canada were never covered under NAFTA, nor have we ever claimed the same. No one ever thought we could import Chinese cars and suddenly export them under NAFTA. We reduced prices and opened up competition with more options for the benefit of Canadians, saving us from being limited to a bunch of American dogshit.
Now the "you can't drive here on your vacation" is a hilarious bit of defensiveness by the corporate shill American politicians (every American politician is bought and owned, whether by fearful-of-competition automakers, Israel, military contractors, etc. An astonishingly corrupt, busted country), and honestly it's worth a laugh. Maybe they haven't noticed, but to most Canadians, realizing how far and how fast the US has collapsed, driving there is no bueno. That consequence is cosmically funny in how it just fully fails to read the room.
by llm_nerd
7/30/2026 at 9:00:14 PM
But cars from foreign manufacturers "made" in Mexico or Canada can be exported to the U.S. per NAFTA, like everyone's doing now. The Chinese are currently building loads of EV car factories in Mexico in the hope they can export them North when this Administration ends.Fat chance.
by hn_submit