Chinese electric vehicle major BYD is considering opening a factory in Mexico, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Citing unnamed sources, the publication said that BYD was scouting for suitable locations. The factory would manufacture cars for the U.S. market, the sources also said. Chinese EV makers are the top sellers globally after Tesla. That’s because they sell on their local market and that market is huge.
carmakers could sleep easily until now, safe in the knowledge that tense political relations between Washington and Beijing were hardly conducive to a Chinese EV invasion. They probably forgot about Mexico. The United States has a free-trade agreement with its southern neighbors. This means that cars manufactured in Mexico cannot be subject to tariffs if they are to be exported north of the border.