The U.S. has effectively banned Chinese electric vehicles from its market but has yet to overly pressure allies to do the same, allowing countries like Thailand to openly adopt Chinese EVs. Despite political tensions and trade barriers, Chinese electric cars are rapidly gaining ground in Southeast Asia, offering a clean and affordable alternative in cities long plagued by pollution and traffic — and it would benefit the world for it to stay that way.
China's EVs drew big crowds at 2025 CES. (Photo: Patrick George)
“The American lifestyle is non-negotiable”
-George Bush Sr at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992
The U.S. government has been unwavering in its policy of blocking the import of Chinese electric vehicles to American shores, but it has not yet put serious pressure on its allies and major trade partners to follow suit, and that’s probably a good thing.
There are signals of disapproval in the media, of course, raising questions about the inconvenience of charging up, dubious batteries that explode, unfair trade practices and even fears raised about eavesdropping, but no active measures are in place.
As a result, there is an effective standoff in the U.S.-China trade war on the question of third countries buying Chinese EVs that are effectively banned in the USA.
The rapid influx of Chinese electric vehicles on the streets of Bangkok in recent months has been unheralded, but it is unmistakable and by no means unwelcome. Chinese auto dealerships are sprouting up like bamboo after the rain in an automotive market where Japan has long been the dominant player.
Bangkok streets where shops have been shuttered due to the economic ravages of the pandemic and the weakness of the Thai economy are seeing signs of life. For example, a popular noodle restaurant next to a big market has been replaced, not by another eatery, but by a new car showroom, BYD to be specific.
Many of the giant billboards that soar above Bangkok’s highways carry ads for Chinese EV makers in what seems to be a trend of the times.
Bangkok has suffered unbearable traffic jams just about as long as anyone can remember, dating back at least to the 1960s. Every year more and more cars vie for the same restricted roadways, and smog-wrapped traffic jams are a way of life.
The embrace of gas-driven automobiles is as obsessive as that of the Americans, but with a lot less free space and open air to run in.
Roadside vendors have long been inured to the indignity of sharing the rancid air and crowded urban corridors with hot, snarling and smelly internal combustion engines. Impatient motorcyclists seem to revel in the very smoke and noise, but the environmental degradation takes a toll on body and mind.
What if a clean, quiet alternative was available? What if one could enjoy, without dirtying the air, comfortable, functional and affordable transport that took passengers from point A to B without spewing smoke, oil and making a racket on thickly populated streets?
The answer is here. EVs are the best way, if not the only way, for a city like Bangkok.
For now, it is politically wise, if not prudent for Uncle Sam to look the other way and not wag the finger at the historically pro-U.S. market of Thailand and others from buying Chinese cars that don’t pollute.
China is not alone in producing EVs, but it is the market leader with no close second. Chinese cars, in the short time since sales began to boom, have proven capable, providing a sturdy conveyance useful for moving people around in a sprawling urban environment. In Bangkok the expression “nobody walks” properly understood, applies to rich people, but rich and poor alike covet transportation that can protect them from the scorching sun and pounding rain.
Cars have been doing just that for a century or more, but the real game changer is how they do it and at what cost to the environment. Electric cars do something even the most expensive combustion-engine driven Benz, BMW, Rolls and other fancy rides from Europe never did, despite the plush interiors and splendid detailing, and artful aerodynamics.
They move people around without polluting the air.
While the percentage of EV cars is still small, the trend is upward, especially in the livery sector. The adoption of the new technology dominated by China has led drivers of Grab, Bolt and other ride-hailing apps to forsake the world of gas stations, inefficient idling in traffic jams, and the bleat, groan and roar of the piston-firing engines for a smoother, more copacetic experience.
The U.S. can, and has, with considerable effectiveness, blocked the appearance of Chinese-engineered EVs from the streets of America. And indeed there is a broader economic argument to be made about how best for the U.S. to tackle everything from contested access to rare earths, major state subsidies and stacked global supply chains, if U.S.-style free trade is to remain competitive and free.
But in this Anthropocene era, where climate change affects one and all, politics cannot be allowed to trump the environment at every turn.
The U.S. was an early pioneer and key adopter of EV technology, but it also has a fabled love affair with the gas-guzzler on the open road, which President Bush alluded to as being non-negotiable.
Tesla, despite its sinking fortunes at the moment, more the fault of the politics of its founder than the technology of its scientists, did a great deal to popularize battery-driven cars in the tough-to-crack U.S. market. All of the big Detroit automakers, who are no longer as big as they once were due to lack of foresight and vision, know how to make EVs if the market points in that direction.
No amount of U.S. complaining about Chinese government subsidies, the deliberate masking of country of origin, tactical off-shoring, and the outright assembly of Chinese cars in new huge plants in places like Thailand can hide two basic facts:
Chinese cars are not Thai cars.
Chinese make some very good cars.
Unlike the off-shore rebranding and gray-marketing of solar panels, socks, tools or even clothes hangers, cars are too big, too strategic and too well-understood to confuse the U.S. tariff-czars about where they’re coming from. Even Tesla cars, produced at Tesla’s Gigafactory near Shanghai, are not qualified for import without heavy tariffs.
The engineering, the supply chain, the raw materials, the rare earths and the all-important batteries have the imprint of China, even if they get assembled in Rayong, Thailand, or elsewhere in the region.
It’s hard to know how well Chinese cars would sell in the U.S. if there weren’t structural impediments, because American consumers have historically gone for price over patriotism. “Made in America” is not a surefire impetus to purchase, especially if there is a better product at a better price made somewhere else.
Some of China’s best models, such as BYD Han, NIO ET7, Zeekr 001 would almost certainly sell well in the U.S. were they not blocked by punitive tariffs.
Once a leader in cars as in so many other fields, the U.S. is a victim of its own success, having sustained a level of market domination that led to complacency and the smug under-estimation of the competition.