Waymo shipped 3200 CN-built EVs to LA for its fleet despite 127.5% tariffs

Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) have been essentially locked out of the American market, despite many experts viewing companies like Xiaomi and BYD, which currently sells more electric vehicles than Tesla, as pace setters in the industry.

But you won't find Chinese EVs in hardly any U.S. car lots. They're not illegal to sell, but they are too expensive to import. EVs arriving from China are subject to an 127.5% tariff tax, according to Forbes. That means that the price of a single vehicle more than doubles the second it enters the country.

Waymo, Alphabet's autonomous ride-hailing service, doesn't seem to care. At least, it thinks the cost of importing the vehicles is worth it. In fact, Waymo has imported 3,200 Zeekr cars from China since 2024 through the Port of Los Angeles. That includes 2,600 units this year alone, as the company looks to expand its robotaxi fleet.

In the spring, Waymo rolled out Zeekr robotaxis for the first time in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Waymo calls the vehicle the Ojai. The car model is known as the CM1e in China.

The rollout in May also coincided with the release of the sixth iteration of Waymo Driver, the company's proprietary driving system. Waymo said it expects thousands of Ojai robotaxis to hit the road by the end of the year.

Why Waymo is paying the high tariffs

According to reports, Ojai robotaxis offer Waymo an opportunity to bring autonomous vehicles to market more cheaply than they have in the past.

The company's Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis can reportedly cost upwards of $200,000 to retrofit with its technology. Despite being heavily tariffed, Ojai's are actually cheaper.

Ojai robotaxis cost an estimated $38,000, according to U.S. import declarations cited by news outlets. After 127.5% tariffs are applied, the price skyrockets to roughly $86,500. Then hardware and software is equipped, which Forbes estimates costs $25,000 per unit to install.

At well over $100,000, that's still cheaper than Waymo's Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis.

Are Waymo's Ojai imports legal?

Waymo isn't breaking any laws by importing EVs from China. Tariffs don't make it so that you can't import goods from abroad. They just make it more expensive, so overtime businesses may decide that the price isn't worth it.

However, before Ojai vehicles arrive in the U.S., they are stripped of any sensors and computing systems. Chinese vehicles are strictly forbidden from collecting data on American roads.

Waymo adds its own technology to each vehicle at a factory in Mesa, Arizona. Its latest Waymo Driver 6 features fewer sensors than the previous iteration, making it more cost efficient, while improving driving performance in severe weather conditions and improving high-resolution vision, according to the company.

In the past, Waymo's robotaxis have run into issues like its vehicles driving into closed highway work zones, running red lights, and even striking pedestrians.

Despite this, Waymo recently received approval to deploy its fleet across a larger part of California. The California Public Utilities Commission gave Waymo permission to triple the size of its service area, including the license to operate in San Diego and Sacramento.