By Jeffrey A. Newman
China’s BYD Co Ltd is building a new EV factory in Mexico, according to a Nikkei report. BYD plans on creating this exporting hub to the United States to sells its $10,000 BYD Seagull EV. If the cars are built in the new factory and not in China and exported to the U.S. they would qualify for ax breaks up to $7500 per car because they are made in North America. Those cards made in Chine have a $27.5% import tariff.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing represents several manufacturing sectors in this country and it is recommending a new policy change to prevent the influx of Chinese EV cars made in Mexico including exclusionary tariffs on all Chines car imports. Last year, BYD sold more than 3 million cars including 1.4 hybrids and another 1.6 million battery electric cars. BYD factories are being built in Thailand, Hungary and Brazil. Mexico has a skilled workforce including over a million persons already building cars there.
Here is a link to a report from the Alliance about this pressing issue: https://www.americanmanufacturing.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/on-a-collision-course-report-final-022324.pdf
According to the Wall Street Journal, at least a dozen Chinese electric car component suppliers have announced new factories in Mexico in the last few years.
The Beijing Automotive Industry Company is also planning to open a manufacturing plant in Mexico to avoid the present tariffs on their cars made in China. BAIC , which is a Chinese state-owned company. subsidiaries of VAIC Group include BAIC Motor, a military vehicle and SUV manufacturer.
Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer and his firm represents whistleblowers in healthcare fraud under the False Claims Act (FCA) also whistleblowers under the SEC whistleblower program and CFTC whistleblower program including those who evade US sanctions against China, Iran and Russia. He can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 617-823-3217
