There’s a lot of hype about Chinese EVs—is any of it true?

In addition to being full of screens, China now wants its cars to be packed with AI.

See full article...

 

[cyberfunk]

Chinese companies chasing gaudy displays of technology without proper thought to usability and purpose ? Color me shocked

 

[JanneM]

As a side note, the kei popularity does in part have to do with parking. But you only need a designated parking space in space-constrained cities. In semi-rural and rural areas you do not. And kei cars are more popular there than in the big cities, where local movement is enabled by dense networks of public transport.

Keis are popular because they're cheap, they're compact - many small roads are much too narrow for a full-sized SUV - and they're convenient for getting around local areas. Kei trucks and vans are a workhorse for farmers, tradespeople and others who spend a lot of their time tooling around the area every day.

 

[christgod]

I just bought my first EV (in Germany).
When planning to use your car for a long time, the Chinese cars available here become actually more expensive, or at least more risky.
Yes, you may save 25-30% on purchase (often less, given the frequent discounts from European manufacturers, although that requires talking to multiple dealers, which can be annoying).
But insurance is often 300-500€ more per year, repair costs are unknown since part availability can be tricky and dealerships are rare. Who knows which brands will still be around in 10-15 years...

I ended up with the European Ford Explorer EV, after discounts etc it's roughly the same price as equivalent Chinese cars (xpeng, leapmotor) but I like it more and it's manufactured not even 50km from where I live.

 

[Tactical Finesse]

The problem for the USA comes down to this: wine taste on a beer budget. US consumers want want want all the things....then complain when they are expensive. They want: a massively large vehicle, they want high ground clearance, they want a long range, they want all the tech from power-everything to infotainment and lane-assist, they want giant massive roads to drive wicked fast on.

...and then when handed the bill--not only the sticker purchase price, and the cost of insurance, but the cost of maintaining the infra to use it on they complain they cannot afford it.

Yea the costs are high--that is the dispassionate mistress of economics.

 

[phylo]

Thanks for the transparency on the reporting process: assessing consumer sentiment from Ars comments and bluesky, reaching out to the government and not hearing back for two weeks, etc. It feels more accurate than the “consumers [especially voters] all feel…”, without attribution for how this can be known, which is more common in media in general.

 

[Dr Gitlin]

The problem for the USA comes down to this: wine taste on a beer budget. US consumers want want want all the things....then complain when they are expensive. They want: a massively large vehicle, they want high ground clearance, they want a long range, they want all the tech from power-everything to infotainment and lane-assist, they want giant massive roads to drive wicked fast on.

...and then when handed the bill--not only the sticker purchase price, and the cost of insurance, but the cost of maintaining the infra to use it on they complain they cannot afford it.

Yea the costs are high--that is the dispassionate mistress of economics.

Perhaps, but I spend all day here and online being told y’all want small cars with no AI and no connection and no screens and lots of buttons and then an irresponsible website publishes a “you’re being denied this $10,000 EV” and the car is packed full of AI and screens and spyware and all of a sudden none of those complaints seem to matter anymore.

 

[4dprinter]

Thanks to Dr. Gitlin for this summary, reference to Ars commenters and the ensuing comments.

 

[Tactical Finesse]

Chinese companies chasing gaudy displays of technology without proper thought to usability and purpose ? Color me shocked

Sounds a bit like Stellantis, don't it? But that is companies for you--they all want to win attention as the Newest and Shine-iest.

 

[Tactical Finesse]

Perhaps, but I spend all day here and online being told y’all want small cars with no AI and no connection and no screens and lots of buttons and then an irresponsible website publishes a “you’re being denied this $10,000 EV” and the car is packed full of AI and screens and spyware and all of a sudden none of those complaints seem to matter anymore.

Oh I'm, 100% smol car gang. The Biden and then Trump tariffs ruined my prospects of probably ever getting one.

Good piece BTW.

The Chinese autos have jumped on every dumb fad that Detroit did. It feels a lot like enshittification.

 

[Sajuuk]

Principles, in my economy and culture that puts consumption on the pedestal labeled raison d'etre? Principles, in my material reality where my country, propelled by actual fascist oligarchs, crams every space possible full of surveillance and AI and considers privacy some genuine hippy bullshit? Principles, in my home that hasn’t given a genuine shit about workers in generations?

Don’t make me fucking laugh. Ain’t no ethical consumption here no matter what jersey you’re riding, unless it’s secondhand.

 

[NoSkill]

There is a lot of in-depth useful information here. Not that I would be swayed into buying a Chinese EV but it's always good to know. Rivian, Subaru and Volvo's models fit our comfort, parking and highway needs best.

 

[diabol1k]

I ended up with the European Ford Explorer EV

Unfortunately there’s no need to specify, the Explorer EV you bought is the only one there is and I believe it’s only sold in Europe.

 

[aidian holder]

Good piece Dr. Gitlin.

Though Bluesky and the Ars commentariat may serve as poor proxy for wider public opinion.

 

[RemoteSensor]

I bought a Honda Civic hatchback a couple years ago, and friends have commented on how clean and basic the interior is with very little in the way of distracting screens (for a newer car). Here doing my part And I would love my next car to be an EV but I wish they had fewer screens in general

 

[Black Eagle]

I’m using the Ars comments and social media platform Bluesky as my bellwethers

I’m skeptical that Bluesky and the Ars commentariat are representative of the internet as a whole.

 

[FranzJoseph]

Perhaps, but I spend all day here and online being told y’all want small cars with no AI and no connection and no screens and lots of buttons and then an irresponsible website publishes a “you’re being denied this $10,000 EV” and the car is packed full of AI and screens and spyware and all of a sudden none of those complaints seem to matter anymore.

Cherry‑picking Chinese‑market‑only models like Zeekr (?) for their ridiculous passenger infotainment screens and no buttons seems a bit disingenuous to me, though. All your other concerns from your article are fine otherwise!

Compare the ridiculous Zeekr with what the cheapest EU‑market Byd Dolphin actually looks like here in Europpe:

Physical buttons for climate control, volume and drive regime? Check.
No ridiculous screens? Check
et cetera…

I mean, you'd be hard pressed to tell it's a Chinese car, right? It looks pretty normal to me. €23,000 incl. VAT for the basic version.

 

[RockIslandLine]

Chinese average wages are a quarter of those in the US, and being able to throw more workers at a factory while still keeping overheads lower than your rivals gives Chinese OEMs a cost advantage.

Any nation with a minimum wage should enact a tariff on imports at a level specific to eliminate wage arbitrage. Factories keep timesheets and shipping manifests, so it should be relatively easy to ensure that all products sold in a given nation have their labor costs normalized to that nation's minimum wage.

That would go a long way toward eliminating dumping right there.

If you want to compete by having a better supply chain, or better engineering processes, sure. If your core competency is "we don't bother to pay our workers" then you do not get to sell your products in my nation.

 

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The problem for the USA comes down to this: wine taste on a beer budget. US consumers want want want all the things....then complain when they are expensive. They want: a massively large vehicle, they want high ground clearance, they want a long range, they want all the tech from power-everything to infotainment and lane-assist, they want giant massive roads to drive wicked fast on.

...and then when handed the bill--not only the sticker purchase price, and the cost of insurance, but the cost of maintaining the infra to use it on they complain they cannot afford it.

Yea the costs are high--that is the dispassionate mistress of economics.

That's not entirely fair: it's certainly true that some Americans will absolutely not stop commuting in that F350 they totally need for a home improvement job they intend to do some day until it is repoed from their cold dead hands; but it's everyone, regardless of taste, who ends up with the same infrastructure, same set of automakers who find higher margins in 'light trucks', same 'light trucks' that achieve their safety numbers, such as they are, through relatively massive blind spots, a perfectly vertical pedestrian-masher front intimidation grille, and a design that generally coexists poorly with vehicles of plausible size.

There are absolutely assholes who live for the results of the race to the bottom and would absolutely fight you for objecting to it; but it's an entire system of interlocking parts aimed at following the Irish Elk into a dead end; not a bunch of isolated irrational choices; though many of the individual choices are certainly dubiously rational.

 

[MST2.021K]

Keis are popular because they're cheap, they're compact - many small roads are much too narrow for a full-sized SUV - and they're convenient for getting around local areas.

Going to add that the Kei cars also come with a much lower tax burden which helps as the charges start to increase when your car gets "old" and is hit with extra penalties.

 

[sword_9mm]

I'm sure the batteries and powertrains are fine but fuck all that nonsense inside.

If the Chinese want to drive a smart phone fine. Fuck that noise imo. I hate what we have here already. That stuff looks terrible.

I do think we need to subsidize these things; something like a 10k Bolt would be fantastic (add phone casting).

 

[YetAnotherBoris]

Any nation with a minimum wage should enact a tariff on imports at a level specific to eliminate wage arbitrage. Factories keep timesheets and shipping manifests, so it should be relatively easy to ensure that all products sold in a given nation have their labor costs normalized to that nation's minimum wage.

That would go a long way toward eliminating dumping right there.

If you want to compete by having a better supply chain, or better engineering processes, sure. If your core competency is "we don't bother to pay our workers" then you do not get to sell your products in my nation.

The problem there is, you'd be relying on potentially abusive and predatory foreign exporters to honestly and accurately keep and report their books to your tariff authority.

 

[arstechnican]

It drives me nuts to see people gushing over how cheap these things and how we should just go all in on chinese evs when we've seen how this story plays out over and over again.

Flood the market with cheap competition, kill the established players that cant compete on price, and then once the market is cornered raise the price. Rebuilding infrastructure for factories and parts is very very expensive and requires retraining people and is very hard. Once theyre gone it wont come back.

Yes the china redscare is often used as a boogie man used by conservatives but in this case it's just cold hard business.

 

[FranzJoseph]

That Dolphin at the low level is about 26k USD (converted from euro). That's not cheap.

Subtract Germany's VAT and incentives (mostly by reduced road tax nowadays), add your state's sales tax (US median is like 4%?). Now you can compare apples to apples. $22,500 by my count, and that's before subtracting any German road tax incentives.

 

[sword_9mm]

It drives me nuts to see people gushing over how cheap these things and how we should just go all in on chinese evs when we've seen how this story plays out over and over again.

Flood the market with cheap competition, kill the established players that cant compete on price, and then once the market is cornered raise the price. Rebuilding infrastructure for factories and parts is very very expensive and requires retraining people and is very hard. Once theyre gone it wont come back.

Yes the china redscare is often used as a boogie man used by conservatives but in this case it's just cold hard business.

You're not wrong.

We (US/EU) should be subsidizing these things too. Instead we just huck all our cash to the Epstein class and hope they're nice enough to give a reach-around.

Fuck you Jim Farley.

 

[ArbitCommentary]

They key EV advantage China has is not in price. As the writeup explains those price advantages largely dispear when the vehicles are designed to western standards.

They China EV advantage that we are missing out on is in the actual EV technology. It is the CATL's 3rd-generation Qilin (Shenxing) battery, unveiled in April 2026 that completes a full charge in under 7 minutes (10% to 98% in 6 minutes and 27 seconds). It is the the BYD flash charging that charges an EV from 10% to 97% in just 9 minutes and adds 400km of range in 5 minutes. It fully charges a cold soaked battery at -30°C in 12 minutes. It is the 2nd Generation Blade Battery that provides electric range exceeding 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) and the WeLion Semi-Solid-State Battery from Nio which was live streamed providing a real world range of 1,044 km from a 150 kWh battery.


Here is Kyle from Out of Spec recently reviewing BYD flash charging to show the next level of EV technology being deployed that we do not have access to


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajim7KF30jE

 

[tlhIngan]

Kei trucks are desired because trucks don't always drive on rural roads - many deliveries take place in city centers and such. And anyone who's driven downtown knows parking is just crazy. A small truck able to carry most of the goods a full size would carry, but be able to nimbly navigate narrow alleyways and park in the smallest parking spots is an advantage in space constrained areas.

As for the Chinese EVs, Canada will be a test market. Just look north and see what happens. It's a multi-year agreement and at the end, 50% of the quota should be ones that cost less than CAD$35K (about US$22K or so). Similarly, it appears that the cheaper EVs are also cheaper - they don't contain those always connected cellular connection - because they're too cheap. A cellular data plan still costs money, and sure, if you're spending $50K on an EV, it's a minor expense. At a $20K EV, that's a much bigger expense. And knowing people, those who buy the cheaper cars will likely use far more data than those who buy the more expensive vehicles, costing more money.

The touchscreen thing is a concern though - I don't really like Teslas because while they look like cars, they don't drive like cars. I want my gear shifter (even though it's just a fancy switch) - a stalk mounted shifter is fine. Ditto with the turn indicators / etc. I also like a regular dashboard with needles (drawn or real).

 

[azery]

There is a lot of in-depth useful information here. Not that I would be swayed into buying a Chinese EV but it's always good to know. Rivian, Subaru and Volvo's models fit our comfort, parking and highway needs best.

Would Volvo not qualify as Chinese these days?

 

[Hkroff]

<deleted accidentally duplicated post>

 

[cleek]

Perhaps, but I spend all day here and online being told y’all want small cars with no AI and no connection and no screens and lots of buttons and then an irresponsible website publishes a “you’re being denied this $10,000 EV” and the car is packed full of AI and screens and spyware and all of a sudden none of those complaints seem to matter anymore.

wanting to be seen railing against the status quo in the US is a powerful motivation

 

[Dr Gitlin]

Would Volvo not qualify as Chinese these days?

No more than McLaren counts as Bahrani. Volvo is headquartered in Sweden and listed on NASDAQ Sweden.

 

[Tonkaman]

The problem there is, you'd be relying on potentially abusive and predatory foreign exporters to honestly and accurately keep and report their books to your tariff authority.

Also you don't want to do that when the US minimum wage hasn't kept pace with the cost of living in 30+ years, and hasn't moved a penny since 2009. That'd be comparing one made-up number (lying foreign competitiors) with another fake number (minimum wage that nobody earns because you'd be homeless at that wage). Effectively useless exercise.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Some of the chinese factories are way more automated, so the labor cost difference between a US and Chinese EV isnt just the difference in wages. It's the fact that not nearly as many people are needed to run the facility in the first place, AND the difference in wages. "Dark factories" because you dont need lights on.

 

[wastrel]

Hey! I wish I was still using a StarTAC.

 

[Tactical Finesse]

100% tariffs on Chinese cars? Make it a million %, and apply it to ALL Chinese products.

Then do the same for products from Russia and from North Korea.

How much more are you prepared to pay--for everything?

There's a reason US companies sent manufacturing overseas. Americans affirmatively voted for policies that made American workers supremely uneconomical. It isn't so much that Chinese workers are artificially cheap--it is that US workers are insanely expensive. Our society chooses to not socialize medical care with taxes--instead employers have to pay employees excess wages to buy health insurance via increased prices. Our country chose to destroy its transit networks in favor of everyone owning private cars--those cars are also paid for via excess wages from employers via increased prices. The same is true for college. And retirement. And childcare. And housing.

There's a reason that the USA has a BLS statistic called "total cost of compensation", which most other countries don't have.

If the USA wants its manufacturing back...you have to make it in companies economic self-interest for it to be at all sane to do so. You can't do it with some arcane neoliberal fairy-sprinkles of tax breaks, or even import tariffs. And it will takes decades plural to pull off, which is a problem when the USA has ADHD when it comes to anything that takes more than 2 weeks.