Canada

Sure. If it were well made, had a good safety record, affordable replacement parts and didn’t phone home.

Same considerations I give to any other car.

100% I'd consider it. For me, "Chinese EVs are dangerous" is in the same category as "immigrants are causing affordability issues." Red herrings peddled by the North American uber-wealth class

I don't really have a problem with a certain amount of protectionism as a concept, but Canada has a long history of granting special privileges to specific companies in key industries, then sitting back while those powers are used to mercilessly abuse consumers. I'm not super confident this is going to be any different.

No such thing.

The $10k Chinese EV is only $10k in China. When localized for other markets, it's much closer to the same price as all other EVs. Some of this is tariffs, but there's a bunch of changes they need to make to meet safety requirements. Even the $15k Seagull they talk about in the article is expected to be the cheapest offering in Europe, eventually, and they're aiming for 20k Euros, which is 30k CAD.

They should build a factory in Canada like the rest of the autos. Then labor practices and safety will follow Canadian standards, and more of the significant purchase price will remain in our local economy. That will also level the playing field with other Canadian made cars instead of decimating the future of the industry, since lower cost EVs are far from profitable yet. Yes #FuckCars and all that, but there always will be a need for cars even if we drive fewer of them. It's good to be able to build EVs in Canada. The neoliberal dream that we can offshore and buy things made anywhere in the world while having people in our economy flourish has failed. Doing more of it won't make it work.

Lots of BYD in Europe, you can watch them on YT or others, people love them

If it didn't have survalance sensors and had no internet connectivity, yes

What's to gains:

BYD, a Chinese car manufacturing giant, debuted its Seagull EV last year at a starting price of about $14,600 Cdn for a 305-kilometre-range version. The cheapest options available in Canada, by contrast, start at roughly $38,000.

What's at risk:

The stakes are high. Since 2020, Canada has attracted more than $46 billion in investments for 13 electric vehicle, battery and battery component manufacturing projects, according to a June 18 report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

The same report says that Ottawa and the provinces have jointly promised up to $53 billion in return, including tax credits, production subsidies and capital investments. Industry groups, such as the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, warn all of that could be at risk if the industry isn't protected.

Why when I can buy reliable and well-made cars from the North America and Japan?

As long as it can pass Canadian safety regulations (so I won't try to buy one through a back-channel import), I'd be fine with it.

Honestly I'd trust Chinese manufacturers more to just give me the basics of just driving and less of the unnecessary frills that make it a data hogging iPad on wheels.

Probably not, since their routers and other devices have shown what appears like purposeful security openings and data harvesting, I would not trust an EV from China to not log all my info. Or worse a remote kill to disable all vehicles when China doesn't get what it wants and throws a tantrum

Yes.

I don't even want cars made in America.

New cars have an internet connection and GPS now, even if it is not exposed to the driver it is there.

New cars have one of those fucking touch screens in the dash leaving many of the features of your car held hostage by the lowest-bidder firmware that will never get an update and can not be replaced. That lowest-bidder firmware is also insecure, exposing your movement and vehicle features (engine control, transmission control, body control, climate control, locks, steering, braking, and the radio) to whoever happens to take the time to break it. When Dodge got owned a few year ago the problem was so big that they only way to prevent bad actors from owning cars was to block all traffic to the vehicles externally, the cars could not be made secure on their own.

New cars have horrible physical security as well, using the same CAN bus to operate exterior lights and unlock the fucking doors. They are vulnerable to replay/relay attacks which are possible with $50 off the shelf hardware. A lot of cars even let you program a band new fob with bluetooth, so for under 100 bucks someone can just drive away with your $60k phone on wheels.

Before we start deciding which country has the best cars how about we set some strong standards for the quality of all vehicles on Canadian roads?

Without missing a heartbeat. Cars made in China tend to have extremely cool gadgets you never see in European cars. Be it front, back, lateral facing cameras or any other type of sensors. They've got so many cool stuff we're just missing out on, man.

Of course I would, I did it 6 months ago.

Absolutely not! I can't afford an affordable EV.