Canada proposes 100% tariffs on Tesla, I have an alternative: open the door to Chinese EVs
Canada proposes 100% tariffs on Tesla, I have an alternative: open the door to Chinese EVs
A Canadian candidate for Prime Minister has proposed implementing a 100% tariff on Tesla vehicles in response to US tariffs...
Why just a tariff? Just ban all Tesla vehicle imports and all sales of new Tesla vehicles. For owners of existing vehicles they should be offered a generous buyback and equally generous loan terms for a new or used car. That would encourage most Tesla owners to trade-in their vehicles.
I was thinking the same thing. I always thought one of the main reasons for the 100% tariffs was to be in line with what the US wanted. But with things being the way they are, I think we should open the door for Chinese EVs. If it benefits Canada, we should do it. I'm not well versed on the Chinese EVs, but from some of the documentaries I've seen, the quality is comparable to the US models, if not better, due to the features that they pack into their base models. I know that there are concerns about eavesdropping and data collection, but isn't that a risk with the US too? And especially the way the US is now, I'd trust them even less. Because it goes beyond the data collection, it goes to their intention of annexation.
I'd rather we open the door to Chinese EVs, or any other competitors, just so our trade is more diversified. (I'm not familiar with the infrastructure investments that would be required for Chinese EVs, or policy adjustments, I just think it's something that should be seriously explored and implemented, just so we're not so dependent on the US alone).
The benefit of a tarrif on Tesla vs opening the market to China is that we can easily undo it if there is a US coup, Trump gets medicated, gets burned, whatever. There's still the potential that this is a temporary situation, not the new reality. If we open up to a third party, we can't put the genie back in the bottle.
Why not do both? I like public transit idea but does not work for smaller/rural communities
Someone's doing the happy hunny dance....
I think we should build them ourselves.
Get them to help build factories in Canada
The thing is, if Trump wants to kill Canada's role in US car manufacturing, then it will cost him the car markets in Mexico and Canada. If there's no jobs here to protect, then we'll just drop the tariffs on Chinese EVs. (This is speaking like 20 years down the road). We'll all be driving Chinese cars in that scenario. The tariffs are a total lose-lose situation, so dumb.
I hope EVs don't get a bad name out of all this. EVs are one of the few good things to come out of the last decade or so.
I obviously don't understand the economics of it and I realize that China will always have the upper hand on price but is there a reason every western EV has to be $40,000+? Like surely it's possible to build a barebones model for less than 30k right - especially if I don't need or even want touch screens or fancy interior materials or heated seats or anything.
Why would Canadians want cheaper EVs that may or may not be reliable when they can have American assembled ones that are more expensive and may or may not work?
Why not both
The argument against Chinese Ev's is not an economic one.
If some authoritarian state wants to steal from its poorest in society and transfer the wealth to foreign electric car buyers, why is our government trying to win in the race to the bottom?
Billions have been spent on the Canadian EV industry through subsidies, tax cuts and grants. The relative amount of jobs and Canada made goods are pitiful. The real beneficiaries are the foreign auto companies.
We will NEVER have a competitive advantage against China, Japan, US, UK, SK and Germany. Stop trying and put all that money and effort into something we do have a chance at being competitive in.
Or maintain and drive the car you already have. There are more options then Tesla and BYD. These are probably the worst options.
The main reason why Chinese cars (all of them) aren't allowed in North America is most don't pass our strict Safety standards. What needs to happen is provinces need to allow mini EV's. There are wonderful little single or two seater EV's that only do 30 Kmh, and can do 50 to 100 km's in range. But aren't allowed legally on the road. You can get them for like 5K.
Electrek (the publisher of the article) seems to be a bit of a shill for Chinese EV companies, or he's getting some kind of commission. He's repeatedly promoted Chinese factories, goes on Chinese factory tours, etc... I don't know what the angle is, but it's vastly different from similar sources like Electroheads out of the UK.
That said, fuck Tesla.
Also, Canada should invest in building more micromobility devices here, like e-bikes, e-scooters, etc. The future isn't cars, and we need more affordable, accessible modes of transportation.
I still want diy builds to be eligible for hov lane sticker and rebates when they have those
The whole “China bad America good” concept has been put in a different light of late.
Does EU/North America fear truly China because of its expansionist policies, or simply because their skin is a different colour? It’s not like the USA is above tampering in foreign government and bugging electronics.
I say go for it, Canada. If only because it’ll push Tesla off the scoreboard without the tariffs. They can’t compete.
Switching from one Authoritarian to another is never the solution.
We know that new(er) cars have spyware controlled by some government or corporation. If my privacy is going to be violated, I’d rather have a hostile gov/co do it. I’m not a government employee. When it comes to national security, I’m a complete nobody. I don’t give a shit what Beijing knows about my life, because they don’t care, and probably won’t share info with the West. Maybe they’ll share it with Russia, but again, that’s irrelevant to me.
I want Washington (and, to a much lesser extent, Ottawa) to know as little as possible, because I don’t trust them, and it’s much, much easier for them to make my life difficult if they want to.
I’d like to hear your opinions on this take.
In that article it is mentioned that Trump is going back on an agreement he signed a few years ago.
Therefore agreements made with Trump do not mean anything. He will choose not to honour them if and when it is convenient to him.
But then I guess we already knew that from his business practices.
The art of the deal is to make the other side believe you are honourable, use that credibility to offer more than you intend to give and leverage them to give you what you want. Then invent a pretext to cancel the deal and keep your ill-gotten gains.
The problem with governments dealing with trump is that they trust him to be true to his word. I do not believe he will. I fear he will use this approach with Ukraine to hand them over to Poo-tin. Then when it's to late for the international community to do anything he'll just say Zelenskyy didn't hold up his end of the bargain.
Is 200% not legal?
Why not 10,000%?
Why not both?
There needs to be some coercion of Canadian present (foreign) auto industry to make a committment to their Canadian operations.
The UAW said that despite the looming price increases, it will be companies that raise the costs that are ultimately to blame, not Trump.
There's certainly a danger for industry to cower to Trump, and help sacrifice Canada. A tariff level that is meant to raise revenue while still making Canadian industry/dealer network competitive, is a good starting point to "semi-welcome" dealership/repair or bigger investments from China into Canada. Trump has said he wants to get China to invest in EV manufacturing in US. Holding evil attitudes towards China because the US told us to apply their same tariffs without even talking to China, is simply an anti-Canadian attitude.
Overall tariff reductions on China is path to get a stronger Canadian retail sector that gains volume from US crossborder shopping and lower prices for Canadians as they also dump US alternatives. Deleting America program should be our common mission, and it is only through that mission, that "sense" will take place in Trump's cabinet, and then "undelete America" can happen again.