https://www.wired.com/story/china-conquers-mexican-automotive-market-and-the-us-is-worried/
State department hand wringing that China is going to use the US trade agreements as they were designed is 
I fully expect them to redo these with “except china” clauses.
so what youre saying is i should go to mexico to buy an EV
If you can yeah
Wouldn’t you face problems with importing and registering it in the USA?
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
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.
ready and waiting to buy a 2024 BYD car in… 2049
But those Chinese EVs are sold here, hence the tariff being in place, right?
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)
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.)
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?
you absolutely cannot do this
B-b-but what about the free market
Can you just keep it registered in mexico somehow? I live near the border and see mexican plates pretty often
Guess you can run into problems with the insurance, unless you get a Mexican insurer with a US coverage premium.
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
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.
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.
It’s state specific. You’ll want to first check that you can get it registered with your dmv. Some places do have vehicles you can’t get registered because they wouldn’t meet safety or other standards.
The only issue is that American mechanics apparently overreacting on those scanner things and don’t actually know how to fix electric vehicles that don’t use our same blueprints.