Right now, thanks to tariffs, very few Chinese-made cars are sold in the United States. But if Michigan's freshman U.S. senator has her way, that number will go down to zero.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., introduced a bill this week aimed at preventing Chinese vehicles from going on sale in America. “I will lay down on the border to keep Chinese vehicles from entering the U.S. market," Slotkin said in a statement. The bill is her first in the Senate.
Called the Connected Vehicle National Security Review Act, it seeks to establish a "national security review process" for Chinese-made connected cars and parts manufactured by companies from China. This process would also intervene on Chinese cars made in other countries and imported here, such as Mexico.
Slotkin, herself a former CIA officer, said that limiting or banning the introduction of Chinese vehicles is a matter of "national security."
“Chinese vehicles could collect huge amounts of data on America and Americans, which poses a significant national security threat," Slotkin said. “Chinese vehicles, which are dirt cheap thanks to state subsidies, could collect full motion video of sensitive sites, 3D mapping, and geolocation of individual drivers—all of which could be sent back to Beijing.
But she also conceded that "Michigan’s auto industry and auto jobs" are also at stake if those vehicles were allowed to compete in the U.S. As InsideEVs has covered extensively, due to a combination of state investments, intense internal competition, lower labor costs and a decades-long lead on battery technology, China's automakers are widely considered to be well ahead of those from Western and other Asian countries.
While a Fox News host who spoke to Slotkin said that "a lot of cars with American names on them" are made in China, in reality, only a small handful of U.S.-market vehicles are from that country. They include the Buick Envision, the Lincoln Nautilus, the Polestar 2 and the new Volvo EX30. The last two in particular have seen price increases and other barriers due to existing and renewed anti-China tariffs; Polestar is largely phasing out the Polestar 2 in favor of other models not made in China, and Volvo is set to move production of the EX30 to Europe at a later date.
While China's automakers have indeed made considerable inroads into Europe, Africa, Latin America and other markets, none have been able to make inroads into the U.S. yet. However, with President Donald Trump's tariffs retooling the global trade order, automakers like BYD may be in a position to increase their global market share as former U.S. partners turn to new ones.
Slotkin is hardly the first politician to raise "national security" concerns about cars from China, especially those equipped with Lidar, radar and mapping software. Trump's predecessor, President Joe Biden, used that as a pretext for anti-China tariffs of his own last year. The U.S. government has taken similar actions in the past against companies like TikTok and Huawei. But whether Chinese connected cars are an actual security threat, or merely a theoretical one, remains to be seen.
Last year, the Biden administration also proposed restrictions on connected-car hardware and software developed by China and Russia. Between that, Slotkin's proposal and Trump's new tariffs, it could be a while before BYD and the rest hit American roads.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
