US senator calls on president to ban Chinese electric cars – report

A US senator is pushing for electric cars made in China to be permanently banned from the United States.

According to news outlet Reuters, Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio wrote to US President Joe Biden to implement the blanket-ban on all Chinese electric cars in an effort to protect the country's domestic automotive industry.

"Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) threaten our economic and national security, and the entire American auto industry," Senator Brown said in the open letter to the president.

"Allowing these automobiles into the United States would harm American manufacturing, American workers, American consumers, and American security.

"Chinese EVs, highly subsidised by the Chinese Government, could decimate our domestic automakers, harm American workers … and give China access to sensitive personal data," the lawmaker alleged.

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The comments reference unconfirmed reports of the Chinese Government providing thousands of dollars of subsidies on each vehicle to help lower prices overseas, along with previous warnings of personal data being tracked and stored on Chinese servers.

Senator Brown describes the vehicles he opposes as "EVs produced by Chinese companies or whatever subsidiaries they establish to conceal their origins."

However there are already Chinese-made electric cars sold in the US – the Polestar 2 and Volvo EX30, both built by subsidiaries of Chinese automotive giant Geely.

Possibly unaware of these vehicles, Senator Brown said: "If Chinese electric vehicles are allowed to enter the US market, it could decimate the American auto industry. According to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, doing so 'could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector'."

Chinese brands such as MG, GWM and BYD do not yet sell cars in the United States.

While The White House did not immediately respond to the letter, President Biden said in March the US market potentially being flooded with Chinese vehicles "poses risks to our national security," adding he would "not let that happen on my watch".

The US Senate has proposed to hike tariffs on cars manufactured in China, following calls from both major political parties to help level the playing field for domestic automakers.