I say we do this. The ONLY reason Canada put tariffs on Chinese EVs is because of the US - back when the US was our friend. Those days are well over.
From what I understand, Chinese EVs out perform the US ones (charge quicker with longer range) and are way cheaper.
I have a security concern with Chinese EVs.
They’re far too computerized, and connected, at this point.
The last thing I want is the ability for the Chinese government to disable a quarter of the Canadian vehicle fleet if they decided they wanted to. Or potentially even worse than disabling them in some cases.
American cars are the same, and China hasn’t joked about making us their 24th province.
I’m far less concerned about the American government disabling vehicles in Canada. If America wanted to take us over we couldn’t even dream of stopping them.
China could benefit from causing problems though.
At this point it’s not even inconceivable for Americans to do something as retaliation for, say, Dougie Ford shutting down electricity. Or use it as a bargain chip as part of playing it tough in a negotiation.
Or forget the taking us over bit. It’s not the taking over that is hard for them, it’s keeping control. We can very effectively resist and make the occupation extremely costly for them. Every bit of leverage they have makes this harder.
Fuck, is it that inconceivable that if they go full Gilead they wouldn’t start shit like controlling whether you can drive your car to an abortion clinic?
No, China hasn’t joked about that, but they will do so if they can.
Canada should not buy those american F35’s for exactly the same reason(s).
I don’t disagree with that.
This is possible with most modern vehicles today. They nearly all have cellular modems built in and very few have the driving related systems separated from the ‘infotainment’ crapware. 2014ish jeeps could be bricked by OTA updates to the fucking radio, there’s a good Defcon talk about it
Yes, but I’d much rather have the company controlling the official switch not be directly under the control of China.
The US is only marginally better right now, but they have less incentive to do it and less control of their car companies.
A vulnerability was found this year in an undisclosed major car manufacture in the USA that gave total control to an attacker over all vehicles sold by that manufacture’s dealerships. Remote start/shutoff, unlock doors, GPS tracking, even transferring the ownership to another person. All modern vehicles are a security nightmare, the chinese are no better, no worse. https://eaton-works.com/2025/10/13/def-con-33/
They are worse, because the Chinese government has direct access to an official kill switch if they want it.
Just because there can be other problems doesn’t make that any less of a problem
China isn’t Canada’s friend. Spending money on Chinese goods means you are funding Russia’s war against Ukraine.
If you need to import something, why not import it from the EU? They make EVs. As does South Korea.
This reasoning is weird. Was buying American goods or UK goods or German goods funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza??
Why buying Chinese goods funding Chinese genocide in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia?
Are you asking me or the person I’m responding to? They are the one that started talking about buying things as funding genocides. I merely questioned the consistency of applying the principle.
Pure projection, I thought that Xinjiang “genocide” was already old news but seeing Tibet here is laughable. Please stop being an USA asset lol
With Canada so obsessed with keeping vehicle manufacturing jobs to the detriment of every Canadian not wanting to buy American cars. Why does Canada drop the Chinese tarrifs but demand certain assembly and manufacturing of Chinese vehicles happen in Canada?
Sounds like a win win, but they are too stuck on the idea they should only manufacture cars from incumbent companies that are stuck in the past. Canada has significant geological resources like lithium and rare earth metals is an even better reason to be excited about EV production in Canada.
Because cars assembled in Canada cost more, a lot more compared to slave labour.
Ten years ago I’m not sure I’d have said this, but now: fuck it. We should just get into bed with China. They seem totally uninterested in wars at all unless you’re Taiwan, which we’re not. Trade matters. They seem stable. Sure there are some human rights issues but given all the human rights issues fucking everywhere right now, like. I dunno. I’m for it.
I don’t even think China is interested in any wars over Taiwan. I’m fairly certain it will be a peaceful rejoining once the US crumbles, akin to East and West Germany during the fall of the Soviet Union.
This is exactly the mentality that caused WW1 and WW2 AND the upcoming (or ongoing) WW3. You probably did not aware how many IP theft happened to Canadian local firms and institutions.
IP theft
lol. lmao.
Not only am I not aware, I also don’t care.
Who the fuck cares about IP theft lmao. They can have it, ideas should be free.
What IP? How to dig holes with oxycontin addicts? Hilarious, Canada spends fuck all in R&D.
Sure there are some human rights issues
They only kill people I don’t care about in mines and factories, so it’s cool!
My point is more that there are few countries I can think of that are viable trading partners that aren’t committing appalling human rights abuses Joe.
Wanna see a trick? I can make bots appear, watch this:
Maybe if China agrees to stop being a threat to Taiwan, stops interfering in our politics, and stops spying on us, and builds some auto plants here to employ some Canadians, we can talk about their fucking EVs. Until then, we already have one international bully as a trade partner, we don’t need more.
Canada lied about stop selling arms to israel who are we to gives lessons?
The reasons we have tariffs on China has nothing to do with bs you spew we did it to protect the usa car industry
The American and Japanese auto industries both employ Canadians.
Chinese would also employ Canadians or any other countries investing in Canada. Why couldn’t we start investing in our own companies to build cars?
Chinese would also employ Canadians or any other countries investing in Canada.
No. Chinese factories abroad employ Chinese migrant workers as it has been also said here on Lemmy multiple times. Also, Canadian suppliers won’t be deliver much as Chinese EV makes employ their own suppliers from integrated value chains.
@DonkMagnum @IndridCold Not a fan of China, but it’s sort of rich to demand non-interference when inferring some interference ourselves.
Maybe if China agrees to stop being a threat to Taiwan, stops interfering in our politics
Also this is rich:
builds some auto plants here to employ some Canadians,
So does that mean we will be basing our canola growers in China?
You forgot one thing, when OP has a bad take it is called “the correct opinion and the obvious stance expressed with freedom” when some else does (or has a good take that OP doesn’t like) it’s called bots interfering in our politics.
lol. Do you really think the economic impact of our canola industry is on par with the potential impact Chinese EVs? It’s a ridiculous notion.
Is it? Have you run the numbers?
Just think about the amount of land in Canada dedicated to growing canola vs the amount dedicated to building EVs. Or the number of people employed, for that matter.
@DonkMagnum No, I do not.
But it does beg the question why you didn’t lead with that instead of your cute grandstanding initial comment.
“Threat to Taiwan” they are a threat to each other, Taiwan claims the whole of China, PRC claims the whole of China as well.
“Interfering in our politics” sinophobic, but even then the US presents a much bigger threat. I don’t really think there is much interventionism done by the PRC troughout its history lol
“Stops spying on us” US giggles lol
These are all blatant lies, but thanks for proving me right, bot.
Btw, native English speakers don’t write things like “giggles”.
Beep bop I am a bot, come here to destroy your beautiful country, we are the horror of the white nations. And are you seriously profiling people for using “giggles”, lmao when will you bring out your skull ruler?
Nice racism you got there buddy
Nothing racist about Winnie the Pooh, he is cuddly and stuffed with fluff!
Yes, nothing wrong with Winnie the pooh, great character, silly bear. Except for when the yellow bear is used to portray an Asian person, coupled with the “Tigger” the tiger used to portray a black person, i.e. Obama.
https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/main/us_atrocities.md
These are all blatant lies
The comment you’re replying to contains an opinion, two statements of fact, two more opinions, an historical assessment couched in “i don’t really think”, and finally closes with giggles and lol.
I don’t see any lies there; if you think the factual claims in it are wrong I encourage you to read up: the PRC and ROC actually do both claim all of China, and the PRC’s foreign policy is largely non-interventionist.
thanks for proving me right, bot
Do you find many people online with opinions differing from your own who you don’t think are bots?
lol.
If Chinese manufactures can exceed Canadian standards, provide spare parts for a minimum of 10 years from the date of manufacture, provide a minimum of 10 years of software support/updates, AND allow all software to be audited for both safe function and security. Then sure. Bring on the cheap EVs.
(But not even our current domestically produced vehicles meet those requirements)
The issues is they are artificially cheap, which undercuts Canada’s auto component industry from serving as an EV hub.
The Chinese government paid for production and have lots (as in sites) of cars that are unsold. They offered huge discounts to unload last years production. Since there were laws about discounting new cars, they moved them (paperwork wise) through shell type arrangements to make them appear as used cars (with less than 5km on the odometer etc).That stuff undercuts any means of US and Canada EVs being viable.
Question, would you say that Teslas are artificially cheap?
Tesla has government assistance programs in US and Canada, but $35000 Tesla does not compete with $14000 Chinese car
Is that a yes or no?
Bye troll
Get a grip. So, assuming you realize that you just admitted Canada has a double standard for banning subsidized electric vehicles, why not force the US to offer you a better deal? Tesla has no issue operating in China. Where is your spine?
It’s a serious security hole cause the software can be updated through network, the version gets audit and all the follow up update can be good, but the moment it needs to go rogue you just need 1 malicious update to have serious and wide spread harm/attack on a button.
IMO for any vehicles to allow over the network update is beyond stupid. (yes, that includes Tesla.)
Hey kinda like the F-35
It’s fine though when the Americans do it do is.
Carney is still buying those lemons the US Navy rejected. I guess elbows out means buying overpriced junk while cutting all services.
“how do I hold all these” meme but instead of his arms it’s just elbows
There are a few good defcon talks where it has been shown that the engine control and body control can be accessed and modified via the “infotainment” system (the one I saw specifically was Jeeps).
This happened for real at the weekend:
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/10/software-update-bricks-some-jeep-4xe-hybrids-over-the-weekend/
shocked_kirk.gif
Once you’re inside a car that’s on, there really isn’t any security*. The OBD2 port that every remotely modern car has is perfectly capable of accessing all the diagnostics and data streams the car has, and can also control/reconfigure the various computers.
IMO that doesn’t really matter, since the system isn’t powered until the key is in the ignition and the car turned on. You can’t do anything with the key off, and if your passenger wanted to sabotage the car, they’d just yank the wheel as you drive down the highway.
That said, yes OTA updates are a travesty. Specifically because cars have so little security, having any access to their computers from the outside is a massive risk… And if there’s a potential that the country the manufacturer is in turns hostile, that risk certainly isn’t reduced.
* A handful of manufacturers have “added” security to their systems by… (drumroll pls) restricting access to the systems and requiring a subscription for full access. That’s fucking evil and doesn’t even do anything (at least for a mechanic or tinkerer like me) since you can just google “FCA bypass cable” and skip right past the firewall.
Modern cars expose the engine/body control CAN bus through the fucking headlights. You don’t need to be in the car and it doesn’t need to be on for you to have the same or more access than the OBDII port.
It doesn’t matter what the country of origin is, someone is gonna find a way to break OTA updates, gain access via exposed wireless networks or just pop off a CAN bus controlled light and plug in. How long before someone pushes a malicious update that causes the ABS to disable or degrade braking to near 0%, or just throw the electronic power steering full left whenever the speed exceeds 101km/h?
But that would be silly, because the easiest way to kill someone without consequence is to get behind the wheel and run them over. People could also be putting bombs in product boxes and poison in medicine. A coherent society doesn’t have these problems.
Forgot about wanacrypt, stuxnet or the Ashley Madison breach? indiscriminate harm is the norm not the exception.
Let me say it this way, you propose some convoluted technological way to fuck with someone’s car, but you can already just go under and start cutting vital lines. But again, that’s extremely rare because most people aren’t inclined to doing that kind of harm.
Only Toyota was dumb enough to have a CAN bus run to the headlights. Edit: and use the same bus the keyless system runs on.
It’s in dodge vehicles now, the other manufactures will follow soon. It saves a fuck ton of wising when you only need to run a single power wire and data bus to each light cluster instead of power for high beams, low beams, fog lights, indicators and vanity wank lights.
Yes, but it is a different CAN bus than anything critical to the operation of the powertrain. A typical BMW will have five or six different, and completely separate, CAN bus.
Sounds like an easy decision; we sell our rapeseed and get non-American cars.
Do it. Canola is an important industry to Canada and we don’t make evs here anyway.
On October 8th, after Carney’s meeting with Trump, Lutnick said that the US is going to insist on dominating the North American auto market and have assembly all happen in the US with Canada being forced into a subordinate role.
We need alternatives.
I doubt we will make this deal with China, because the US will not tolerate that, but it would be much better for Canadians.
It would be a catastrophe for Canadians as China seeks to exploit trade opportunities with other countries while at the same time protect its home markets through a wide range of measures no Western country has ever done. Just look at China’s trade balances, for example, and you see what happens. But I guess not all people want to see the truth.
Sock puppet Scotty, at it again, joined by sock puppet randomname this time. What time are you two clocking off for the day?
Canada needs to diversify the trade to rely less on the USA. The current gov has a huge problem on their hands but also opportunities to do something new!
When it comes to the EV tariffs I see opportunities for Canada, we have factories, some of the raw materials, Human Resources, experienceand logistics in place for the automotive industry! The Ev industry needs more than the cars there is a new ecosystem that can be worked with Chinese companies by doing knowledge transfer, manufacture autos + parts by bringing the suppliers as well. EVs need batteries and the charging network, we can bring these items to the trade talks.
China al has the largest high-speed rail network and why not expand the deals to help Canada build our high-speed rail Network?
Canada can do this and all other things without close relationships with China or other dictatorships. Such governments aren’t reliable partners. There are no human rights in China, no willingness to make supply chains transparent, an the country shields off it domestic markets from foreign competition.
The only thing you mentioned that is real is China is a dictatorship, it is on their constitution “Dictatorship of the people”.
I’m sure you want the good of Canada but like everyone else has been heavily influenced by western propaganda to dismiss China or any other Country that isn’t white western nation!
Not negotiating with dictatorship means no trade between Canada and Saudi Arabia, United States, Hungary, Turkey, Israel.
- Why China isn’t a reliable partner? Can you back your information with real data?
- why China supply chain isn’t transparent? Do you work in the industry? Have you visited China to check the suppliers?
- “China shields itself from foreign competition” isn’t what we just did with Chinese evs to protect from competition?
You got no information about Chinese supply chains, even transparency of stock listed companies in China are almost zero. China is heavily working against transparency standards in supply chains.
China is highly unreliable. Just look at China’s Belt and Road Initiative ‘partners’ and how they do (or look at those who decided to leave the initiative).
There is ample evidence. I also sure you want the best for Canada but like everyone else has been heavily influenced by Chinese propaganda to dismiss China critics absurdly accusing them of being a racist.
I haven’t accused anyone not even you! But you seem to be complete delusional just repeating racist and xenophobia against China without any proof, that’s what I asked and you just go on a rant about China or matter of about any country that isn’t part of the white western nations.
Australians have access to Chinese EVs, why can’t we?
There is/should be a lot of room for compromise.
A mix of “reasonable” tariffs and quotas to start, to make Chinese EVs competitive without destroying domestic manufacturing is a good path. Canada needs investment. Whether foreign auto makers do it, following through on previous commitments, shutting out China can be a reward for them.
Without choosing to provide value cars to Canadians, Canada could offer agriculture for Chinese (solar) energy trade. Pemitting them to boost capacity even more.
Instead of begging the US to buy (and own through investment) our resources, Chinese development would help significantly as well.
Corrupt ideology programmed into Canadians is bad for Canada. We need new friends instead of abusers, and the only reform of an abuser possible comes when they beg for forgiveness when you flirt with new friends.
We don’t even need to be “friends” with China, we just need to recognize the situation we’re in and work with them pragmatically. Rejecting China in the current economy is like rejecting gravity.
This would be a bad deal for Canada.
This would be a bad deal for
Canadathe big car companies that have been producing massive, dangerous, filthy, wasteful monster trucks instead of smaller EVs thanks to protectionist policies.FTFY
Accusing Canada or other Western countries of protectionism while defending China is a bit of hypocrisy, no?
In addition, look why these ChEaP cHiNeSe CaRs are that cheap. I don’t want to buy a car or anything else that is made by slave labor.
Oh I’m not defending China. They’re oppressive assholes who are jamming their populace into the gears of capitalism even faster than the Americans. Fuck those guys.
I just think it’s a bit rich to try to make the argument that we should defend an industry that profits from building things we don’t want so they can run over more kids, ruin more cities, and make a shittone of cash and then cry poor and demand a bailout.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy one myself, but then again I try to avoid cheap Chinese crap as much as possible and I don’t want a car. The “BuT sLaVe LaBoUr!” Argument would be great, if anyone seemed to care about that when buying phones, or solar panels, or basically anything else, but when it’s invoked to defend American car companies, it’s obviously not in good faith.
This is disinformation. They are cheap because of abundance in materials, easy/advanced factory construction, competition, and advanced leadership in robotics. It’s just pure smear, not only to baselessly say slave labour exists in Xinxiang, but that it also applies to more prosperous provinces where cars are made.
This would be a bad deal for Canada.
Point out even a single Canadian-made EV that would be affected by this.
There are no negative effects, so long as the vehicles pass safety standards. Bonus if we can enter into partnerships that would see those EVs assembled here.
And the low cost of these EVs would make vehicle ownership far easier for our young people, who already have an environment 8× more expensive (compared to their median wage) than their parents experienced at the same age.
The entire Canadian economy would be negatively effected in the long-term by such a move.
The entire Canadian economy would be negatively effected in the long-term by such a move.
TIL a higher standard of living is a “negative effect”.
You may have (intentionally?) misunderstood my comment.
Yeah well… I’d like to do whatever Poland is doing.
Yeah, kneecapping our canola industry to support the USA’s foreign policy, on the other hand, is a great deal for us.
Hey, remember when China was operating their own police force in Canada? Maybe we should be doing less business with them.
You really want an isolationist economy like the USA?
Send some mounties to Beijing
I remember people saying that but I don’t recall ever seeing any evidence of it actually happening
Serious question; how much does China subsidize EV sales to glut markets and buy market share? I’m guessing it’s non-zero.
I’d love to see canola embargoes open because I have a bunch of bins full, but is this fair to other vendors, domestic and other foreign makers?
Serious question; how much does China subsidize EV sales to glut markets and buy market share? I’m guessing it’s non-zero.
Probably less than our subsidies.
Probably not.
Seems to me that the happy medium here might be a lower tariff. 100% was never justified, but 10% or 25% might be. Just enough to allow European and Japanese manufacturers (I don’t give a damn about the US at this point) to price their vehicles somewhat competitively even though they don’t have the advantage of ignoring labour rights.
