Competition between the Chinese, American, and European car industries reach a new peak.
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown urged US President Joe Biden to outright ban sales of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States. Brown is a Senator from Ohio, a state with a strong car industry, and is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee.
"Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry," Brown said in a video posted on X (formerly known as Twitter). He continued imploring Joe Biden “to take bold, aggressive action and to permanently ban EVs produced by Chinese companies or whatever subsidiaries they establish to conceal their origins."
Brown remarked that he and his wife drive a Jeep Cherokee manufactured in Toledo, Ohio. The state received a fresh influx of government funds when the Biden administration granted chipmaker Intel $20 billion to build a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Ohio (and three other US states).
Though Ohio is currently under Democratic administration, Brown faces reelection in November 2024. Republican candidate Donald Trump is running in his third-ever campaign as US President. In both his past campaigns, Ohio fell under Republican control.
Donald Trump is vehemently anti-China, beginning a fierce trade war against Chinese exports during his presidential term. Brown’s statement could therefore be seen as an attempt to attract Republican voters. The overall context of his post, however, is much larger.
Overproduction fears
Sherrod Brown is the second US official to warn against China’s exports in mere days. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the world should fear “China’s overproduction”, hinting at stricter trade regulations to be placed in the near future.
China became the world’s largest producer of EVs, overcoming Germany and Japan in one single year. The Shanghai-based BYD passed Tesla as the world’s best-seller of electric cars.
The American car industry is therefore terrified by the flood of cheap Chinese vehicles. And it is not alone.
European carmakers are likewise raising fences against Chinese EVs. The European car industry is the largest in the world and remains one of the last major exports of the continent.
Last year, the European Commission launched an investigation probe into Chinese subsidies to EV carmakers. Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition chief, said Beijing’s subsidies allow carmakers to charge lower prices and is therefore an “anticompetitive practice” that undermines European work and industry.
Joe Biden is notoriously close to the US car industry. Last year, amidst the largest car industry strike in recent US history, Joe Biden was seen marching alongside picket workers.
Whoever the next US president will be, protectionist measures for the American car industry are almost definitely a guarantee.
