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Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Future Coach newsletter. This week, I'm answering a question about how Americans can get access to the cheaper, better electric vehicles available in Mexico. |
(Alejandra Rajal for The Post) |
A reader asks: Can a U.S. resident can buy a vehicle in Mexico and bring it home? What legal, safety and service barriers apply. You can buy a car in Mexico. Registering it, and bringing it across the border, is another matter. After visiting Mexico City to experience the sleek and affordable electric vehicles off limits to Americans, I took a brief foray into the byzantine process of a U.S. resident theoretically importing a Mexican car into the U.S. You are facing a mountain of paperwork. If you’re trying to import a Chinese vehicle, you’re facing a wall.
All cars purchased in Mexico by U.S. residents, whether made by an American or foreign firm, must meet the U.S. safety and emissions standards to be legally registered (with narrow exceptions). A manufacturer’s label or a licensed importer must attest it meets U.S. Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency standards. Taxes, duties, fees and handling costs apply. The primary exception is for U.S. citizens and non-residents living in Mexico. They can import a nonconforming vehicle for personal use for up to one year (that’s not extendable). This is mostly designed for visitors and commuters living in a Mexican border city like Tijuana, not someone living on the U.S. side, like in San Diego. It’s not open to American citizens living in the U.S. If you’re living abroad, however, Mexican residents are already using this option, the Wall Street Journal found. But you appear to need legal Mexican residency to register your car there. What does this mean for the Chinese electric vehicles I test drove? These face barriers you are unlikely to get around. First, President Joe Biden announced a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs in May 2024 and President Donald Trump slapped on a secondary 25 percent national security tariff on most imported vehicles and auto parts.
A rule finalized last year bans on the sale or import of Chinese- or Russian-linked software in connected and automated driving systems starts for model year 2027. Further restrictions on hardware are slated to take effect for model year 2030, Reuters reports. That’s not all. Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) have also proposed a bill to “hermetically seal” the U.S. from Chinese automakers, calling them a national security threat. This would also block American car companies from joint ventures with Chinese automakers — a way for them to gain new manufacturing expertise — and block Chinese car companies that own U.S. brands, such as Geely-controlled Volvo, from selling in the US. Waivers may be forthcoming. Some senators want to ban all Chinese vehicles manufactured or even titled in Canada and Mexico from entering the country, as well as preventing Chinese automakers from opening factories in the U.S. That may, for now, end any attempts to import, build or even drive a Chinese car into the United States. On the other hand, Trump has sounded a more welcoming note: “If they want to come in and build a plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that’s great, I love that,” Trump said this January in Detroit. “Let China come in.” 📊 Numbers game
Electric vehicles are taking off at different rates around the world. Once EVs reach about 5 percent market share in a country, adoption often accelerates. Not in the United States, notes Ember, a clean energy think tank. Spotty charging infrastructure, higher sticker prices and, most consequentially, removal of incentives by Congress and the Trump Administration led to a sharp drop in new EV sales this year.
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The most affordable electric vehicle I test drove in Mexico City wore an American badge but was born in China. Don’t bother looking for it at Chevy dealers in the United States. Chevy’s roughly $24,400 Spark EUV seems tailor-made to take on the Dolphin Mini built by China’s BYD, now the largest EV manufacturer in the world, selling for about $21,600. Since my visit, Chevy has tried to undercut the Dolphin, selling it for about $21,100 if you include a trade-in and financing. The Spark EUV is a rebadged Baojun Yep Plus, produced with General Motors partner SAIC and made in China, where it sells for the equivalent of less than $15,000. GM did not respond to inquiries for this story. The Spark is roomier than the Dolphin Mini Plus, with 54 percent more cargo space, but has only four seats to the Dolphin’s five. It drives like a mini-Jeep: boxy and burly, with no finesse on the pavement but more power under the hood: hp, about a third more than the Dolphin Mini. I never got the Spark up to highway speeds, where some reviewers deride it as squirrelly, but it held its own in city traffic. It also comes with a few extra safety features and conveniences such as automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. The 175-mile range (157 with a full load, estimated EPA-equivalent) was comparable to the Dolphin. But the digital details felt anachronistic. After imbibing futuristic Chinese-made interfaces all week, the Spark’s 10.1-inch screen looked like someone slapped an aging Android tablet on the dashboard. The Spark offered Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but lacked affordances found in the Dolphin Mini, such as a rotating touch screen, built-in navigation, a cellular connection, over-the-air updates and a voice assistant. The Spark, at least, lets GM start to compete with China’s low-cost, high-technology rivals. The three EVs that GM builds in Mexico — the Chevrolet Equinox EV, Blazer EV and Cadillac Optiq — sold just a few hundred in the country last year, according to INEGI, Mexico’s statistical agency. The Spark EUV may give it hope. Despite slow initial sales after arriving in Mexico in mid-2025, sales have surged to about 4,000, according to registration data. But it’s still behind BYD.
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After reading about my Mexican test drives, some had EV envy. Sam Popkin, who spends time teaching in Beijing, and his wife are, “constantly wishing we could have these cars.” Tom Hernandez saw the future of driving in the US as just like what the Chinese are selling — but without “most of the costly comfort tech.” One reader, who recently bought a 2026 Kia Niro hybrid for about $30,000, had no sympathy for the U.S. automakers: “They have stalled innovation in EVs for years and only grudgingly offer hybrids on select vehicles ... I am averaging 60-65 mpg. Try finding that in an American vehicle.” Jane hoped the future of driving wasn’t driving at all. “The future of driving in the U.S. — I HOPE — is not individuals’ driving. It’s alternate transportation: buses, trains, bicycles, scooters, walking!” You can also send feedback or ideas for what I should cover next using this form.
Hot and cold extremes: Greenhouse gases hit record highs and the U.N. says global warming will breach 1.5°C — but deep cuts can bring it back. Florida’s attorney general sues climate modelers over their home risk scores, while insurance analysts are being pressured to play down climate risks. Here’s what meteorologists want you to know about the wild winter ahead. Researchers are calling climate change a vote winner days before the mid-terms. For the conservative climate movement,a blue wave may be a wipeout. Here are the four climate anxiety questions everyone asks. (UN, Politico, Reuters, Washington Post, FT, Insurance Journal, Yale Climate Connections, Unthinkable) Machines on the march: AI suffers a “trust deficit,” as most Americans want to halt all data center construction in the U.S. Anthropic files for what may be the biggest IPO in history, while Meta was ordered to pay $25 billion in New Mexico for privacy violations. In China, the AI bubble appears to have burst. For three-hours, solar was America’s top source of electricity generation this month, while Anthropic calls the lack of electrons a “significant constraint” on new data centers. (The Washington Post, Reuters, Politico) So much to protect: America gets its first new national park in six years and five new mussel species were discovered in America rivers. A couple is dedicated to saving hundreds of raccoons, while others race to save Borneo’s orangutans from fires. Spiders may dream like us. We’re way closer to protecting 30 percent of the planet than we knew. (The Washington Post, Anthropocene Magazine, Science Daily) Let’s end on a launch: NASA’s SpaceX CRS-35 mission illuminated the predawn sky on Oct. 13, in Cocoa Beach. Florida. For many, the rocket’s exhaust plumes looked like an aerial jellyfish, visible across the eastern United States. |
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Send your questions to me at futurecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. See you next week, Michael Coren, Future Coach Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Future Coach in your inbox every Tuesday. |
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