I tried to find a old thread to bump on this, but there wasn’t anything dedicated to the topic already. There have been members predicting we’d have them going back to 2008-ish.
If this was two decades ago I’d say there was no chance we’d get them, but I’m less certain now. US protectionism will only go so far. Unions are weaker politically. And I think whichever party is the “champion of the poor” might lean towards letting them into our market.
I’d likely never buy one. But bump this in a decade and we’ll see if that holds up
I’ve yet to encounter one myself, unless you count Volvos.
Speaking of Volvo, my mom was interested in one until I told her it was owned by the Chinese.
And maybe there are just too many American women who won’t buy one simply because they’ll lack Apple car play, lol.
A phased-in requirement will start in 2027, requiring 10% of these imports to be affordable models (under $35,000 Canadian price cap), rising to 50% by 2030.
50% of their cars will need to be under $35k Canadian? That’ll be interesting.
This tracks how most of the import companies got a foot into the US.
Cheap cars to fill the lowest margin segment because older brands worked their way into high margin cars to make money and can’t be bothered.
then 15 years later the shitty import brand grows, starts their own luxury brand and starts ignoring low margin cars. Insert the next country of origin, rinse and repeat.
i have a lot to say on this… i’m involved in determinnig interest from existing dealer groups as to whether they would like to put thier names in for certian chinese OEM open-points…
me personally, not yet.
same with EV’s, i will wait for them to make one that really ticks all the boxes for me and even a Model S, good as it is, does not tick all the boxes…and it also ticks boxes i dont want ticked.
I imagine the Chinese OEMs will start with mass-appeal products, which dont suit me anyhow, so i dont think i’ll have to worry about it for a decade or more if they even get set up fully.
