Why can’t Americans buy cheap Chinese EVs?

The short answer is protectionism and import restrictions. And that's not just limited to cars. But it is starting to get a bit awkward as it seems that domestic producers aren't really stepping in the void created by these restrictions when it comes to EVs. The opportunity is there but nothing is happening. Why is that?

The more relevant question to ask is why American car manufacturers, with the exception of Tesla, struggle to export in volume and seem to have largely withdrawn from the international market.

I think it is simply because they are no longer competitive enough to survive without a lot of protectionist measures keeping superior products off the market. That works in the US of course. But it has also killed the export market.

The European perspective to this is that (Tesla excepted) you don't buy an American car because of performance, cost, efficiency, build quality, etc. A European might buy one because they are big, loud, and a bit obnoxious though. Seems to be a thing with some of the rich people here in Berlin certainly.

But you just don't see a lot of American cars here. When you do it's either some old sensible Ford model from when those were still being made; or an imported muscle car with some large engine making a lot of noise and smoke. I even saw an actual truck in Berlin a few months ago. These are very rare in Europe. They just aren't very practical. You can't navigate small streets with them. And nobody in their right mind would use these commercially because the fuel cost would be a big overhead. They are expensive toys but otherwise not competitive. Not even close.

Europeans too "can't buy cheap Chinese EVs" and yet there is a (slightly) bigger choice of models in Europe. Why? Because Europe has laws that requires car makers to make certain types of cars even if it's not the most profitable. Would this work in US? IDK. But opening up the market to the enemy is not the only way to change the situation.

It's not a zero sum game. In trade wars everyone thinks they are winning, but everyone is losing.

There's a lot of reasons, but for me, it comes down to safety. I just don't trust Chinese engineering.

>China, meanwhile, has become a global powerhouse in electric cars: It’s expected to account for about 60% of the world’s 14.1 million new passenger EV sales this year, according to BloombergNEF.

This is bull**. Why? Because in China it has became extremely profitable to manufacture the shittiest EVs possible and send them to ev graveyard fields immediately after manufacture (even the usual China cheerleader Bloomberg has to admit it: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/ ) to claim China is "going green". All while approving 2 new coal fired power plant every week and laughing at us in the West as we go further to deindustrialise our countries, becoming reliant on China for basic materials such as steel(not even mentioning rare earth metals and how they mine/process them).

These articles are pure 100% pro-Chinese propaganda. See another example of a company cheerleading for the authoritarian regime Blackrock. They wrote articles just last year trying to convince people to "invest in China". Was this just incompetence? No it wasn't. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/08/01/inve... Not only they lost a shit-ton of money. They were "investing" in companies using force labour and funding companies making stuff for the Chinese army. However, what is most important is that this came to the attention of the US congress when Blackrock started loosing money. When they were profitable no one would care... Bloomberg tries to portray themselves as objective, but their content shows where they really are on China.

Its just blatant protectionism, which ironically hurts both Americans and American automakers.

If they don't have bloatware/spyware on it, I might would consider. There's an thread from just a few days ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37443644

What are the Euro-NCAP safety ratings of the Chinese EVs with the most sales in Europe?

Because America is not a free market and never has been

I'm surprised no Chinese automaker has looked at the American market the way Japanese automakers did a few decades ago. Their cost advantage makes it a no-brainer and designing a car to meet American regulations shouldn't be that hard. It's easy to bypass trade restrictions by manufacturing in the US/Mexico if Chinese automakers think of the market in terms of a long-term investment.

Why Americans cannot produce cheap EVs?

Could chinese electric cars be legally sold as kits that get assembled by the us customer?

Because US manufacturers will eventually get out competed even with reciprocal 25%-50% import taxes. With how things are going I'd be surprised if US even allows PRC cars from Mexico or Canada on US roads.

Has anyone bought any electronic device made in China that wasn't cheap: cheap quality, cheap price? Now we're supposed to trust that their electronic cars aren't like every electronic device ever made there? Trade protectionism is saving Americans a lot of grief.