The current laws ban cars connected to/associated with China, not just their manufacturing location. Polestar was recently banned entirely even though one of their cars was manufactured in the US. BYD cars manufactured in Canada would still be banned from import.
Although decisions have been arbitrary and capricious lately, and laws haven't been consistently enforced.
NAFTA is no longer a thing, the USMCA has been in effect since 2020 which handles trade between the US, Canada, and Mexico.
The USMCA has no vehicle import cap, however Canada created a separate nationalist tariff to push for Canadian vehicle production, and since Tesla has no Canadian manufacturing facility they have to pay a tariff after the cap is hit.
I wonder if they'll have the same impact they have had in Australia, BYD's everywhere the last year or so.
As of this week the BYD Atto 1 is the cheapest new car in Australia, not (just) cheapest electric car ... cheapest car. $19,990 drive away (ie including taxes and registration). It's not the best car but in a city where most families have two cars having one of them an Atto 1 is a value choice.
I drive a Ford Mustang Mach-E, but would happily switch to BYD car just to get access to that kind of fast charging, especially if it's available across Canada.
Also, it would be great to see aftermarket kits for existing EVs to upgrade to supported battery kits. This is probably a pipe dream, and I don't know anything about what it would take to accomplish this. If that's not possible, there should be much stronger standards on how batteries are built, shaped, etc, and controls on how the batteries can be discharged. Batteries already appear to be the most expensive part of maintenance cross the two EV (one PHEV, and one EV) that I have owned - pushing for standardization should help drive those costs down, and enable longevity for new and potentially existing fleets. Last thing we need is cars becoming as disposable as phones because of battery lock in and manufacturers dropping support.
I wonder what the optimal charge time really is - 5 minutes is short enough that you might have to stay with the car then move it to avoid overstay fines.
If you are stopping for 20 minutes for a bathroom break and a snack every 2 or 3 hours on a long trip that might actually add 5 minutes each time.
It's not about being cheap. China has been manufacturing high end goods for the global marketplace for a long time, and has also been doing if for their domestic market. The challenge is that most Canadian and American experiences with Chinese products are with white-label, top tier products like the iPhone built to high quality standards, or dollar store trash manufactured as cheaply as possible to be cheap. Until Apple started moving production, most consumers thought of the IPhone as an American product when it was really American software running on Chinese hardware (I know, it's a simplification). From everything I have read, the BYD cars that would be available here would be competitive products, not the cheapest thing you can buy, which means you should expect to pay for them, but the feature set and value will likely be higher (though I will remain skeptical till I can take one on a test drive here).
I am cautiously optimistic about this, and look forward to that test drive.
Buying a Chinese EV in Canada feels like such a gamble given the current geopolitical situation. Like what happens if things reverse and you can no longer get parts or support for these cars? Let's say you can get parts and third party shops open up to fill the support gap, how sure are you you'll continue to get the software updates these cars rely on?
While I'd love to consider a Chinese EV as my next car, there just seem to be too many early adopter risks here outside of the car itself.
Meh. The entire geopolitical situation is unstable. If BYD is hoping to build manufacturing and infrastructure here, and they are willing to make significant investments, it makes sense for us (Canadians) to pursue that, while continuing to strengthening our ties to Europe, and making sure that any thoughts of Canada as a vassal state to the United States are consigned to the dustbin.
We had a close relationship with the United States, but we have been burned pretty badly, and it's up to the Americans to show that it's worth returning by stabilizing the rule of law, and eliminating the capricious and nonsensical trade barriers that have been implemented.
When the Carney government decided to let a small, capped, number of Chinese EV's into Canada's auto market, it was clearly meant to send a message to Trump. Namely, if you succeed in destroying our auto sector, we'll drop all tariff's and import bans on auto's from abroad so de-Canada'ified American autos will have to compete on a level playing field for what is, currently, their #1 export market.
Instead of treating this concession like something that could be negotiated away at any moment, BYD is going hard right out of the gate. Even Tesla only built a small and inadequate charging network in Canada. If BYD builds a more substantial charging network while they have the access, that access will be much harder to take away. It would go from a potential negotiating chip to something Canadians won't want to do without.
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[ 0.18 ms ] story [ 2.4 ms ] threadAlthough decisions have been arbitrary and capricious lately, and laws haven't been consistently enforced.
The USMCA has no vehicle import cap, however Canada created a separate nationalist tariff to push for Canadian vehicle production, and since Tesla has no Canadian manufacturing facility they have to pay a tariff after the cap is hit.
As of this week the BYD Atto 1 is the cheapest new car in Australia, not (just) cheapest electric car ... cheapest car. $19,990 drive away (ie including taxes and registration). It's not the best car but in a city where most families have two cars having one of them an Atto 1 is a value choice.
I drive a Ford Mustang Mach-E, but would happily switch to BYD car just to get access to that kind of fast charging, especially if it's available across Canada.
Also, it would be great to see aftermarket kits for existing EVs to upgrade to supported battery kits. This is probably a pipe dream, and I don't know anything about what it would take to accomplish this. If that's not possible, there should be much stronger standards on how batteries are built, shaped, etc, and controls on how the batteries can be discharged. Batteries already appear to be the most expensive part of maintenance cross the two EV (one PHEV, and one EV) that I have owned - pushing for standardization should help drive those costs down, and enable longevity for new and potentially existing fleets. Last thing we need is cars becoming as disposable as phones because of battery lock in and manufacturers dropping support.
If you are stopping for 20 minutes for a bathroom break and a snack every 2 or 3 hours on a long trip that might actually add 5 minutes each time.
I am cautiously optimistic about this, and look forward to that test drive.
While I'd love to consider a Chinese EV as my next car, there just seem to be too many early adopter risks here outside of the car itself.
We had a close relationship with the United States, but we have been burned pretty badly, and it's up to the Americans to show that it's worth returning by stabilizing the rule of law, and eliminating the capricious and nonsensical trade barriers that have been implemented.
Instead of treating this concession like something that could be negotiated away at any moment, BYD is going hard right out of the gate. Even Tesla only built a small and inadequate charging network in Canada. If BYD builds a more substantial charging network while they have the access, that access will be much harder to take away. It would go from a potential negotiating chip to something Canadians won't want to do without.