By Kyle Stock | Bloomberg
EV variety is easy to find outside the US. Where American drivers now have about 50 electric cars to choose from, Europe’s array is almost double that, and China’s nearly triple. With that variety come more small and midsize options, and more cars with price tags that won’t break the bank.
Ask any US automaker and they’ll say this is mainly a profitability problem. To pay for investments in electrification, carmakers are first focusing on trucks, SUVs and other premium models. That same tension is at the center of the United Auto Workers strike, which is pitting factory workers looking to preserve pay and benefits in an EV world against carmakers who say they can’t go electric, meet union demands and stay in the black.
China, meanwhile, has become a global powerhouse in electric cars: It’s expected to account for about 60% of the world’s 14.1 million new passenger EV sales this year, according to BloombergNEF. Many of those options are small and affordable; some are downright cheap. Take BYD’s Atto 3, a small, front-wheel-drive crossover with one of the most advanced batteries in the game. The Atto 3 costs just $20,000 in China and starts at $38,000 in the UK and Europe. But not a single Atto 3 is headed for the US market.
Why not? The answer is part logistics and part politics.
Although the US has a strong track record of mainstreaming foreign cars — Toyota is one of the country’s most popular brands — the challenges of entering such a competitive market are hard to overstate. All foreign automakers do so at a disadvantage, starting with a 2.5% tariff on most imports. But in two categories that disadvantage is substantial enough to almost entirely stamp out foreign competition: pickup trucks and cars made in China.
Since a 1964 spat over European tariffs on poultry, the US has levied a 25% tax on imported trucks, now known as the “chicken tax.” That surcharge largely cleared the road for Detroit’s…
Read the full article here