itif.org
Don’t Let Chinese EV Makers
Manufacture in the United States
STEPHEN EZELL | SEPTEMBER 2025
Chinese electric vehicle makers have benefited from aggressive state-sponsored mercantilist
policies that have enabled them to produce lower-cost vehicles than foreign competitors can.
They should not be allowed to manufacture their products in the United States.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
From 2009 to 2023 alone, China channeled $230.9 billion in subsidies and other
support to its domestic EV sector, subsidies which have rapidly accelerated China’s EV
competitiveness and allowed its firms to underprice competitors in global markets.
Opening U.S. auto markets to subsidized Chinese EVs—whether they’re manufactured
in the United States or imported from China or another country—could lead to an
“extinction-level event” for the U.S. auto industry.
Allowing BYD or another Chinese automaker to open a new factory in the United States
wouldn’t create any net new American manufacturing jobs (as vehicle demand is finite);
it would just shift vehicle-manufacturing jobs to Chinese-owned companies.
Chinese automakers competing in U.S. markets wouldn’t be like competitors from allied
nations in Europe, Japan, or South Korea. Bolstered by subsidies, they compete on a
nonmarket basis, and they would come with the intent of decimating U.S. industry.
China’s mercantilist playbook of aggressively subsidizing its firms leads to global
overcapacity and underpricing, which has eliminated U.S. competitors in industries from
solar panels to steel and aluminum. Why allow China to rerun that play for autos?
During the campaign, President Trump rightly argued that he had acted to prevent BYD
from “building the largest plant in the world” to import cars into the United States. So,
why close the back door and then open the front door?
