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Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

electrek.co

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Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#61

Post by vdupras »

palmotea wrote: post #44
vdupras wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up until a while ago, I'm pretty sure that the consensus was that China not trustworthy. And then, Trump plays his cards and the consensus is now that the US are even less trustworthy. So here you go.

> Up until a while ago, I'm pretty sure that the consensus was that China not trustworthy. And then, Trump plays his cards and the consensus is now that the US are even less trustworthy. So here you go. But that doesn't make China trustworthy, which this move implies. It seems like there's some "narcissism of small differences" kind of thing going on here. Trump may not share Canada/Europe's values to the same degree…

Why would this move imply anything about China's trustworthiness? Canada has forever been USA's lap dog. They say "jump" we say "how high?". Those tariffs we had were mostly to be in solidarity of the US.

Yes, it was also to protect car manufacturing in Ontario, but Trump has sent a clear signal that as long as Canada isn't a US state, this industry is going to die. So, why bother with a tariff at all?

This has nothing to do with China's trustworthiness.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#62

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #17
ortusdux wrote: post #6

"Canada has agreed to allow an annual quota of 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the country at the tariff rate of just 6.1%" https://electricautonomy.ca/data-trackers/ev-sales-data/2025... "Canada recorded 45,366 new zero-emission vehicle registrations in Q3 2025, accounting for 9.4 per cent of all new vehicle registrations in the quarter, according to the latest report from Statistics Canada." "Of the total, 26…

In a country with 42 million inhabitants this doesn't seem like a big change even for canada, let alone for the global economy.

If you're selling 49000 electric vehicles, and the tariff reduced from $CAN 50k (estimated cost of a new electric vehicle; 100% tariff tax) to 3k (6%), saving your customers $2.3B, that seems significant to me?

I'm only trying to give a feel for them numbers, I did check the average selling price for a new BYD

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#63

Post by justonceokay »

mkozlows wrote: post #41
justonceokay wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a complete sea change. I feel Canada only set tariffs on cars out of some deference to the US auto industry. I don’t want to use slippery slope thinking, but this to me smells like rolling out a Canadian auto market that is not dependent on the US. For the average family, being able to spend significantly less on a car is a big deal.

Keep in mind that the US auto industry is also very much a Canadian one. A lot of Big Three stuff happens across the border in Ontario. But all the policy support that would have let North American automakers build up a competitive position with China is gone, so this is more about just acknowledging reality now.

Yeah there was never any competing with china, our industry just relies on our market using different values to purchase a car.

It’s tough to convince most price-inelastic people they shouldn’t buy a car that is 1/2 price, even if it has fewer features.

Edit: to be clear I meant that the US did not compete, not that they could not compete

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#64

Post by yabones »

footy wrote: post #23

Good. Carney also remarked our relationship with China is now more predictable with our relationship with the states (wild shade coming from him) just to really make it clear to certain parties why this is happening. Cheaper car options in this country will be nice, and I say this as a certified car hater who's yet to own one despite pushing 40.

I think the niche for EV's in Canada will be regional-ish transportation... I would love to see a network of chargers that fully cover the Trans-Canada Highway, but there are still some pretty significant gaps, for example Hwy 17 - If even one of the stations goes down you'd be stranded.

But in that niche I can really see cheap EVs taking off. I know several people who live in Toronto whose cars have never been more than ~80 KM from home, and rarely been over 100 KM/h. That's a perfect EV user.

And a huge plus would be to get rid of the monster American trucks & SUVs that take four parking spots and two lanes at a time...

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#65

Post by frankus »

HNisCIS wrote: post #32
46493168 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. If you want to pay the 247% tarriff, there’s nothing stopping you from doing this. US import duty applies when you cross the border, calculated on the vehicle’s origin (China), not purchase location.

At that point just don't register it and pay the fines, it'll be cheaper.

I think the way this would work is you would have your Canadian friend/owner drive it across and then return via another mode of transport. It's entirely possible you could get away with it pretty much indefinitely (especially in an area where folks are used to seeing Canadian plates), but I could also see someone checking a list of "foreign vehicles that entered the US and never left" at some point and one or both of you having some explaining to do (i.e. being ruled inadmissible).

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#66

Post by footy »

nsmdkdfk wrote: post #52
footy wrote: post #23

Good. Carney also remarked our relationship with China is now more predictable with our relationship with the states (wild shade coming from him) just to really make it clear to certain parties why this is happening. Cheaper car options in this country will be nice, and I say this as a certified car hater who's yet to own one despite pushing 40.

[flagged]

neither does America, and they're much closer and dangerous to us at this time.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#67

Post by palmotea »

vdupras wrote: post #61
palmotea wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Up until a while ago, I'm pretty sure that the consensus was that China not trustworthy. And then, Trump plays his cards and the consensus is now that the US are even less trustworthy. So here you go. But that doesn't make China trustworthy, which this move implies. It seems like there's some "narcissism of small differences" kind of thing going on here. Trump may not share Canada/Europe's values to the same degree…

Why would this move imply anything about China's trustworthiness? Canada has forever been USA's lap dog. They say "jump" we say "how high?". Those tariffs we had were mostly to be in solidarity of the US. Yes, it was also to protect car manufacturing in Ontario, but Trump has sent a clear signal that as long as Canada isn't a US state, this industry is going to die. So, why bother with a tariff at all? This has nothi…

> Why would this move imply anything about China's trustworthiness?

Per you GGP: China was previously considered untrustworthy, so its products tariffed to exclude them. It implies more trust if now those tariffs are being removed to allow them in. And it's especially off of the motivation is some evaluation of the US's trustworthiness, because those two things are completely independent.

> Yes, it was also to protect car manufacturing in Ontario, but Trump has sent a clear signal that as long as Canada isn't a US state, this industry is going to die. So, why bother with a tariff at all?

If that were the motivation, it would make way more sense to partner with the Europeans. IMHO. There's a better alignment of values there.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#69

Post by _ea1k »

feverzsj wrote: post #16

According to Russian users, Chinese EV works poorly in cold climates. I don't think Canadians prefer EVs anyway.

EVs and cold climates are a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, if you want to road trip with snowy 30 mph headwinds, the charging times will be meaningfully worse. Not impossible, but definitely noticeable.

On the other hand, the traction control is fantastic and they tend to have the best preconditioning features so that you never have to get into a cold car for your commute.

For a lot of people, that second paragraph is far more important than that first for at least one of the cars in their household inventory.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#70

Post by kavrick »

daedrdev wrote: post #8

Its only the first 50K that get 6%, still pretty interesting as being physically so close to the US could cause people in the US to get their first look at Chinese cars. Chinese car companies face far more ruthless competition than western ones so could end up making better cars as a result, imo. There are over 100 brands in china selling electric cars

Apparently its quite simple to buy a BYD vehicle from Mexico and import it into the US already.

https://youtube.com/shorts/IEbl6RIJeDc?si=pNol1UkjxRwML9Dz

I suspect the same thing will happen for northern states buying from Canada!

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