• Assian_Candor [comrade/them]OPEnglish
    23•10 months ago

    Probably not, no, I think you could just drive it across the border, if it’s only one. The Chinese cars aren’t illegal here they are just subject to a 100% tariff. I’m talking out of my ass though so take it for what it’s worth

    Edit: I forgot about the safety standards. Wouldn’t want anyone getting hurt. Better stick to the cybertruck for now

    • Chronicon [they/them]English
      25•10 months ago

      I’m talking out of my ass though so take it for what it’s worth

      yeah. From what I know about japanese imports even if you can get them to the US you can’t register them if that model of car was never sold here (and maybe even if it was, idr), since technically it never passed various US safety tests that are mandatory. There have been lots of exotic cars crushed for trying. If it’s older than 25 years though you get an exemption from the safety standards.

        • graymess [none/use name]English
          6•10 months ago

          The tariff is in place to prevent Chinese EVs from setting up shop in the first place. Taxed at 100%, no one will buy so why bother selling here?

        • miz [any, any]English
          6•10 months ago

          to the best of my knowledge the tariff was raised to make the investment in crashing a bunch of cars to satisfy NTSB standards less attractive. cost to consumers is doubled shrinking the potential market (even if they would still be competitive with basic econoboxes sitting at $38,999, the market shrinks considerably compared to a car that would fly like hotcakes at $14k but has to be sold at nearly $30k due to tariffs.)

        • Chronicon [they/them]English
          13•10 months ago

          I don’t think they are, and honestly I think it has to be a VIN that was actually manufactured for US market even then, but I’m not certain. Their USA site only lists one model and has no indication that you can buy it: https://www.byd.com/us/car/han-ev

          Edit: some JDM forum guys claim you have to get it in writing from the manufacturer that the imported model is the same (or “substantially similar”) as the one sold here, for the purposes of not needing to re-pass safety testing. Which, good luck with that unless you’re Bill Gates (okay he actually ended up directly lobbying the government for a carve out for rare supercars, but still)

    • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]English
      18•10 months ago

      You’d probably have to pay a fuckton of fees to get it registered at one of the state DMVs in the US. Sadly probably too expensive/ too much of a pain in the ass to be worth it

      • smokebuddy [he/him]English
        3•10 months ago

        I knew someone about a decade ago who made a business of buying used Dodge Caravans (built in Canada) from the US then bringing them back into Canada to resell, the import and brokerage costs were thousands of dollars but the profit in the difference was still worth it because our prices for our own cars are that inflated.

        There was a lot of paperwork and a few modifications that needed to be made… seemed like a lot of work, wasn’t exactly easy money.

    • blame [they/them]English
      7•10 months ago

      you’ll need to import it in order to get it licensed. But they probably treat an individual importing a single car differently than a company importing thousands of cars. Also iirc you get like one “free” (as in you dont have to pay tarrifs) car import every 5 or 10 years.