Access to Chinese EVs drives debate in US

Jose, a landscape worker in Houston, Texas, recently visited his grandparents and cousins in Mexico.

"I am a little jealous of my cousin's truck," Jose told China Daily. "He's driving a Changan Hunter. It feels so luxurious."

Jose said he's amazed by the standard features packed into the Hunter truck imported from China. They include a tailgate that converts into a step to make it easier to get into the truck bed, a bed cover to secure items, a large touch screen, a 360-degree camera with a backup camera view, and heated seats. The vehicle is also marketed as an extended-range electric vehicle, a groundbreaking achievement in the pickup truck category.

"My cousin paid about $30,000 for that truck. Here, that's barely enough for a base model of a similar truck," Jose said. "I wish we had prices like that here."

Those features that Jose covets can be obtained on a similar United States-made truck through premium packages and aftermarket additions. The caveat lies in the price: similar US trucks with similar features would cost around $45,000 to $50,000, an amount Jose said he can't afford.

Following Mexico, Canada recently opened its market to Chinese EVs and lowered the tariff from 100 percent to 6.1 percent.

Tesla announced it is launching its China-made Model 3 in Canada at a record low price of C$39,490($29,040). In the US, the same car is priced at $42,490, according to electrek.com, making it $13,450 cheaper in Canada.

In February, The Wall Street Journal's senior personal technology columnist Joanna Stern wrote a report titled "I test drove a Chinese EV. Now I don't want to buy American cars anymore".

She drove a Xiaomi SU7 Max for two weeks in New Jersey, borrowed from a friend who got a temporary permit to drive it in the US.

The opening of Stern's report sounded like a love letter: "Now, every time I climb back into my Ford Mustang Mach-E, I can't stop thinking about you — your long range, your modular interior, your absurdly large infotainment screen," she wrote. "Please come back to America… for me."

It's the same car that Ford CEO Jim Farley tried for at least half a year, and loved.

"I don't like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi," he said on "the Fully Charged podcast" over a year ago. "We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I've been driving it for six months now, and I don't want to give it up."

Praising the Xiaomi SU7 as a "high quality, great visual experience", Farley said he drove it "because of the competition". "To beat them, you have to know them," he said.