Auto Companies Call For Ban On Chinese-Made Cars (thehill.com)
- Reference: 0185419296
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/09/04/0441229/auto-companies-call-for-ban-on-chinese-made-cars
- Source link: https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/6070614-auto-companies-congress-letter-chinese-car-ban/
> A group representing American automakers [1]sent a letter (PDF) Thursday to congressional leaders [2]asking for a "permanent ban" on Chinese-made cars in the U.S . John Bozzella, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation's CEO and president, described in the letter China's manufacturing industry as "rooted in a well-documented pattern of unfair trade, subsidies, intellectual property theft and surveillance." Bozzella addressed his request to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) -- urging them to back a "permanent ban on the sale, import and manufacture of Chinese connected vehicles," before the 119th Congress concludes in January.
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> "Right now, Chinese automakers are dumping subsidized vehicles with connected software and hardware around the world," Bozzella wrote, adding that China "is capturing market share" in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico and South America. "This hasn't happened inside the U.S. yet, but given the scale and urgency of this threat, we urge you to enact a Chinese vehicle, software and hardware ban before adjourning this year and make this policy the law of the land," he added. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade organization representing car manufacturers, represents the "entire" U.S. auto industry, per its website.
Bipartisan bills in the Senate and House [3]would bar automakers with more than 15% Chinese ownership from selling vehicles in the U.S. "Enacting a permanent ban on Chinese vehicles and high-risk hardware and software in the 119th Congress will send a clear and bipartisan message that China's strategy to dominate global automotive manufacturing will be met with a national security policy response from the American government," wrote Bozzella.
Further reading: [4]US Car Buyers Envy What They Cannot Have
[1] https://www.autosinnovate.org/association-update/Letter%20to%20Congressional%20Leadership%20on%20Chinese%20Vehicle%20Ban_03%20SEPT%202026.pdf
[2] https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/6070614-auto-companies-congress-letter-chinese-car-ban/
[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/15/0249216/congress-introduces-bill-to-permanently-block-chinese-vehicles-from-us
[4] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/03/23/1829217/us-car-buyers-envy-what-they-cannot-have-affordable-chinese-evs
Yes! Make cars expensive again! (Score:3)
Have fun with that. Due to decades of greed, arrogance and stupidity, the US car industry is cooked. (The German one as well, same reasons.)
Re: (Score:2)
I have a Chevy EV that's pretty cool, they can make modern cars alright, but I do read articles about the administration wanting to rollback fuel economy targets and can't help but think they are definitely doomed on competitiveness if they bite that worm
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There is no wanting, they already did.
Can't compete (Score:2)
American cars have sucked since about the 1970s. They cannot compete, especially not the factories in the Rust Belt. So what do you do, if you can't compete? Easy: try to have your competition banned.
Some level of tariffs might make sense. An outright ban, no.
Re:Can't compete (Score:5, Insightful)
It's reasonable for security reasons to have vehicle manufacturing capability remaining in the country.
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So China’s long game is to sell the world cheap cars and then engage a kill switch at some point?
How does that benefit anyone?
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1. The US gets into a war with China.
2. China sends a kill signal to all Chinese vehicles in the US.
3. The US government says they'll rapidly build millions of new vehicles in the US to replace them.
4. Ooops, we don't have the factories and anyway we forgot how.
Even if the Chinese didn't kill the cars, parts would rapidly become unobtainable.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
You lost me at step 1. Why would we get in a war with China? Again it benefits absolutely no one. China is watching as the US shoots itself in the foot daily and we are no longer a global leader. I mean they’re talking about rolling back mileage ratings for fucks sake. Gasoline is expensive as ever and they want to bring back cars that measure mileage in telephone poles?
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> Why would we get in a war with China?
Taiwan. POTUS is head of the military. The current gangster Uniparty folks ignore the Constitution and start wars whenever they feel like it. Have you not heard their rhetoric already over Taiwan? Have you not seen how dumb our politicians and electorate are? All the elements are there. Dropping bombs on China isn't something you can cancel with a Tweet, either. Once it starts, it'll be impossible to stop.
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Yes, which is why I will never buy an American car or a car built in the USA ever again.
The USA is actively trying to destroy car manufacturing in Canada, and they are likely to succeed. So I will only buy cars from non-USA countries in future.
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> It's reasonable for security reasons to have vehicle manufacturing capability remaining in the country.
Wrong. It’s necessary for national security to have all manufacturing of critical gear and components, including fuel, chips, and vehicles in the country but exclusivity isn’t needed nor is it a good thing. America is screwed because we offshored all products for modest short term gain and now we have no capacity without other countries assisting us.
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The US produces more manufacturing output than every other country on earth other than China.
Re: Can't compete (Score:2)
We still have nukes so we're mostly fine on safety.
The bigger issue is batteries. No matter who's making the car, if it's battery powered, China controls it. If we don't advance our own battery manufacturing then we will remain a stone age backwater.
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> It's reasonable for security reasons to have vehicle manufacturing capability remaining in the country.
I think it's reasonable for economic reasons. As for security reasons ... well let's just note that domestic cars are capable of the same surveillance that is alleged about the foreign ones. I guess it's just a matter of who you want spying on you.
Re:Can't compete (Score:4, Interesting)
There's more to it than just "they're better", there's also massive disparities in labour costs, etc, because of the high cost of living in the US.
If BYD wants to sell cars in the US, why not tell them they can but they need to build them in the US, just as Honda, Toyota, and Nissan do?
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> there's also massive disparities in labour costs, etc, because of the high cost of living in the US
Yeah, those darn robots (https://auto.katadata.co.id/car/byds-zhengzhou-factory-production-is-almost-100-percent-robot-operated-23053), always demanding more time off, holidays, raises, longer breaks...what's next, the robots creating a union and insisting on a 5-day work-week?
We may have to bring some humans back to the factory; keep the fear in those robots so they know they can be replaced at any time.
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Because union benefits.
The unions vote and they don't want to have to compete against Chinese companies with non-union workers.
I guess they could tell the Chinese they have to hire union workers in America, but then they'd just forget about the US market because it's too expensive and too much hassle.
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You can’t claim unions are killing manufacturing while companies are bragging about record profits every quarter.
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> The unions vote
And that's a good thing now because unions voting is a check on corporate personhood.
Re:Can't compete (Score:4, Insightful)
BYD has their entire supply chain integrated and locked in. The simple difference is BYD is aiming for efficiency and US companies only exist to maximize profits.
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At the rate Chinese manufacturing is advancing, if they set one up in the US by the time it is built it would be mostly robots and a few people to keep an eye on them.
The main issue with trying to attract manufacturing to the US is that it is not a politically stable country. Even if Trump does abdicate at the end of his term, the reality for the past few decades has been policies lurching back on forth every 4/8 years. People don't want to invest in things like factories when in a few years the US governme
Ah yes (Score:2)
Chinese invented subsidies...unlike america, eu, the rest of the world...
How many walnut trees do you think there would be in britain if it weren't for subsidies? Or how many liters of milk would germany produce without subsidies? 0?
Protectionism (Score:4, Insightful)
This is Protectionism because the cars we are forced to buy here suck. If your cars are so great why can't they compete on the fair open market and be chosen over the chinese stuff?
Oh yeah thats right. You decided to only sell F150's and stop selling small cars that are affordable for people who can't splurge 100K on a truck that gets 18mpg.
Meanwhile you fools are all complaining about 20mpg and thinking a truck getting 30mpg is good, when overseas you can buy 50mpg reliable cars and 40mpg diesel manual transmission vehicles that can be actually repaired yourself.
Oh yeah, Ford was caught asking Trump to make it illegal to repair your own car too... So this whole strategy just makes sense. If they make cars hard to repair people can just buy the easy to repair chinese ones... so we gotta stop that so Ford can fuck over the consumer without them having any choice in the matter.
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When you can’t innovate you legislate.
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As a European my perception of US cars is that they are fairly crap. A few models make it here and don't compare well to European brands. They tend to be impractical and inefficient. The EVs are half arsed.
Here Chinese brands are competitive, but our domestic manufacturers are making the effort and doing okay with it. Funny how when Chinese brands started gaining traction the European built EVs started getting 10k+ taken off the price, and still sold at a profit.
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You can have the car in any color you want...provided it is black.
--Henry Ford
Nothing has changed.
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> This is Protectionism because the cars we are forced to buy here suck. If your cars are so great why can't they compete on the fair open market and be chosen over the chinese stuff?
I'm all for America making a reliable affordable CAR again. But perhaps we be realistic when asking America to directly compete with a product built with slave wages in a Communist country. Does even a 100% tariff rate make competitive sense here? Does 200%? At what point does an outright ban make more sense? Plenty of other countries have already answered that question with bans to protect their valued brands.
The concept of Protectionism has validity in every country no matter how 'racist' people want
THE IRONY (Score:4, Insightful)
That the "Automotive Innovation" crowd wants to ban competition. Because nothing spurs innovation like a lack of competition. /s
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"Woa woa woa, you want us to actually INNOVATE? That wasn't part of the deal."
Surveillance (Score:3)
Why not just ban that? And why should the Chinese bother with individual surveillance when they can buy data [1]in bulk? [slashdot.org]
[1] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/09/02/0611226/fbi-probes-service-selling-153m-drivers-licenses
American cars are done. (Score:2)
Purchasing an American car is absolutely the stupidest thing anyone can do today when buying a vehicle.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Indeed. But when you look for really stupid Americans, you do not have to look far.
So much for the free market (Score:2)
They're always preaching. If our cars are so good why can't they compete openly?
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US businesses only cry "free market" when they're trying to kill regulatory legislation.
US automakers can't compete, and they know it. (Score:2)
We use to be a country that at least pretended to like free markets. We sure liked them plenty fine when China was buying our stuff. But when it becomes "adapt or die" suddenly industry goes running for Daddy Government.
FTA:
"Right now, Chinese automakers are dumping subsidized vehicles with connected software and hardware around the world," Bozzella wrote, adding that China "is capturing market share" in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico and South America.
Oh no, "connected software and hardware"!
"Stop Importing Good Cars" (Score:2)
Their big complaint is our cars suck and are too expensive. Subsidizing isn't why theirs are cheaper. They're just more advanced at manufacturing than anyone else in the world. They're just better.
They want to force us to buy crappier cars. And as a result, force us to pay more money and deal with more problems. Which means they won't have to compete anymore and our cars will get worse.
This is why protectionism is always a bad idea and competition is a good thing. It forces companies to get better. The same
Detente was a mistake. (Score:2)
Why enrich a genocidal enemy society we and our remaining allies spend trillions to contain? That's slow, inexorable economic suicide.
Communist China abandoned communism but not oppression and ultranationalism. Uighers being Muslim even those who hate US strategic mistakes in the Middle Eastdon't complain about Chinese genocide when the target minority lacks appeal.
Amusing that those yowling about other US strategic mistakes are silent when an enemy society sells us shiny objects so the Epstein class can fi
History repeating (Score:2)
Just like Harley Davidson in the 80s when Japanese bikes were destroying outdated Harleys. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Cry to daddy Reagan for help.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_motorcycle_tariff
Different worlds (Score:3)
I had a friend visit the UK a week or so ago, from the US. He rented a BYD hybrid of some kind, and he was really impressed. That's not why I'm writing this post though - the thing that caught me was that he had never even heard of BYD, the world's largest car company.
Completely different universe.
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They are trying to construct their own bubble. Wildly insular.