China’s EVs Will Destroy Detroit

Detroit automakers just assumed they’d always be protected behind tariff barriers, and it looked like that would be the case for a while, at least, as Canada, understanding that it had a stake in US automaker’s success, followed the US in applying 100 percent tariff barriers on Chinese cars.
That was before Trump made it clear he was going to force US automakers to pull their manufacturing out of Canada, and started bullying, threatening, and ridiculing Canadians, while actively working to subvert upcoming elections in Alberta.

Now there’s a deal with China for Canada to import EVs, with a tariff of only 6 percent. Small numbers, at first, but is there anyone who believes it will stay that way, especially when reviews of Chinese cars on YouTube have become a tech-porn addiction for millions of viewers. (see above)

Wall Street Journal:

My dearest Xiaomi SU7 Max,

It’s been about a month since we were last together. Now, every time I climb back into my Ford Mustang Mach-E, I can’t stop thinking about you—your long range, your modular interior, your absurdly large infotainment screen. 

At night, I miss your adjustable color lighting. On weekends, the kids talk about your wireless karaoke mics, walkie-talkies and yes, that back-seat minifridge.

Please come back to America…for me.

Always,

Joanna

The Xiaomi SU7 Max—like other Chinese-made cars—is effectively blocked from the U.S. market. And yet, late last year, I spent two weeks test-driving one of China’s hottest cars around the mean streets of New Jersey. A friend who previously worked at Xiaomi bought the car and got a temporary permit to drive it in the U.S. He generously let me take it for an extended spin.

My time with the car confirmed what experts in the auto industry have long been saying: Holy crap, China is winning the digitally enhanced electric-car race. 

Chinese EV makers such as Xiaomi, BYD and Geely have earned global accolades because their cars deliver longer battery ranges and deeply integrated digital platforms. We’re talking software that feels smooth like a brand new smartphone, not a screen you have to jab five times to load a map. Plus, they often cost tens of thousands of dollars less than Western competitors. In Europe and Mexico, they’re blowing past Tesla and other EV rivals.

“The competitive reality is that the Chinese are the 700-pound gorilla in the EV industry,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told me in an interview last year. “There’s no real competition from Tesla, GM or Ford with what we’ve seen from China.” Even Farley, after driving a Xiaomi SU7, said he didn’t want to part with it. The company is now rebuilding its EVs, starting with a $30,000 pickup, to compete directly with what they have seen from China.   

I didn’t understand it all until my Xiaomi tryst. I fell for the SU7 Max inside and out, and now I’m left wanting what I can’t have—at least for now. There are growing signs Americans might not have to wait forever to experience China’s superior take on the EV.

Smartphones, tablets, washing machines, toasters, dust-mite vacuums. If it uses electricity, Xiaomi probably makes it and sells it in China. So as cars increasingly became computers on wheels, Xiaomi started making EVs.

The SU7 Max feels exactly like what you’d expect from a tech company making a car, not a car company making tech. The massive 16.1-inch infotainment screen runs HyperOS, the company’s Android-based software. It’s packed with apps—many of them in Mandarin, which I don’t understand. I am, however, fluent in Apple CarPlay, which looks beautiful on that big screen. 

One of my favorite small features: Navigation directions don’t kill the music. They come through speakers in the driver’s seat headrest, while the song or podcast keeps playing everywhere else.

Remember when I chose an EV a few years back? Remember how loudly I complained about Tesla and others ditching buttons and knobs for all-touchscreen everything? With Xiaomi, you don’t have to choose. It sells a slim control bar that magnetically snaps to the bottom of the screen, giving you honest-to-goodness physical buttons for music and climate control. Miracles happen.

You can snap on other modules, too, such as LED bars—if your goal is less family sedan, more Berlin nightclub.

The real magic, though, is for people who live inside Xiaomi’s ecosystem. I could mirror whatever was on a Xiaomi 17 Pro Max phone directly on the main display. Full-fledged Xiaomi tablets—loaded with games and apps—dock into the backs of the front seats to face the rear passengers, instantly becoming climate-control panels.

Bluetooth microphones pair with the sound system, and the karaoke app displays the lyrics to your fave karaoke songs. (Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” obviously.) Long-range walkie-talkies let the driver communicate with kids who have, for obvious reasons, decided to hide under the bed with them. A minifridge locks into the hump between the rear two seats, and you can adjust temperature from, yes, any of the many screens.

Due to my lack of Mandarin skills, I couldn’t test the self-driving features. But on one trip from my home in New Jersey into New York City, I put the car into advanced driver-assistance mode. The car braked, steered and accelerated more smoothly than my Ford Mustang Mach-E. I especially noticed while crawling into the Holland Tunnel, a scenario I’ve been through many times in my Mustang. 

On those same New York jaunts, the battery range exceeded my expectations, largely set by my Mustang Mach-E. On one very cold day—when EV batteries typically take a hit—a 50-mile round trip used no more than 30% of the charge. Xiaomi boasts a range of 810 kilometers on a battery charge for the SU7 Max (roughly 500 miles). To charge it at home, I used my Level 2 charger with an adapter, since China uses different plugs.

We don’t know the long-term reliability or safety performance of these cars, according to analysts I spoke to. For me to be a serious customer, I would obviously need more information. But my impression during my brief time with the SU7 was that this is a well-designed and well-constructed vehicle.

Right now, there’s a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles—on top of other tariffs—and there are federal restrictions on Chinese connected vehicle technology. But those heavy obstructions might not last. 

In early January, in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club, President Trump said Chinese automakers would be welcome if they built cars in the U.S. using American factories and workers. “Let China come in,” he said.

“You absolutely will get a car like the Xiaomi SU7 here—no question,” Michael Dunne, chief executive of auto-consulting firm Dunne Insights, told me.

“Chinese manufacturers are prepared and poised to pounce as soon as the door opens—and that door opens not through imports, but through manufacturing here,” he said, adding that it could happen in the next two years. Geely has even said as much, though Xiaomi said it has no current U.S. plans.