Problem: Buyers prefer to wait for Chinese electric vehicles rather than buy Western vehicles

Canadian EV customers are delaying their purchasing decisions while waiting for more Chinese EVs to arrive on their shores, according to a new survey, suggesting that widespread awareness of China’s EV dominance is causing EV buyers to completely ignore offerings from Western automakers.

The survey was commissioned by Clean Energy Canada and shows that Canadians’ interest in electric vehicles is slowly increasing, with almost half inclined, likely or certain to purchase an electric vehicle as their next vehicle.

But more interestingly, among potential buyers of electric vehicles, there is a major stumbling block: China.

Canada originally had the same tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles as the United States, a 100% tariff implemented (unwisely) by President Biden. As a trading partner of the United States and a highly intertwined auto industry (given that Detroit is literally a stone’s throw from Canada), Canada thought it would be wise to maintain a united front on auto tariffs.

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But then the stupidity happened. White House squatters in the United States imposed tariffs on Canada, leading to immediate job losses and repeatedly threatening its sovereignty. Today, relations between the United States and Canada are strained and Canada is looking to the rest of the world for allies.

At the same time, China saw an opportunity and decided to impose tariffs on Canadian canola. This was a big problem for farmers in the center of the country and led to a somewhat unexpected effect: Canada’s most conservative and oil-loving provinces pressured the Canadian government to lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and allow them into the country, in exchange for China removing tariffs on canola.

Today, China and Canada reached a deal that will allow 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the country per year, and the first ones have started arriving.

But so far, there aren’t yet a ton of Chinese electric vehicle models available in Canada. Companies are developing their distribution networks, but everything is still a work in progress. In fact, Canada is far from exhausting its quota of 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles this year, with only 16,000 Chinese electric vehicles imported in total.

Some brands, like Tesla, have already reached their quota, because they already had distribution networks. Other brands are lagging behind. So there aren’t many models available, with more expected to hit shores next year.

This has led to a situation where Canadian buyers know that a wave of new, reasonably priced, high-tech electric vehicles is just around the corner (although they may be overestimating how cheap these electric vehicles will be, since prices will be higher in Canada than in China). And the types of cars they currently have access to in North America are largely from Western brands that have spent this year lobbying against electric vehicles and canceling models. Or, perhaps worse, brands associated with the United States, which are the subject of much more negative public opinion than ever in Canada.

So Canadian EV buyers don’t want to buy American cars and know that Chinese EVs are coming, are higher tech and cheaper than European and Japanese EVs.

All this led to the interesting result of the investigation in question. Among the 48% of Canadians surveyed who said they were likely to purchase an electric vehicle for their next vehicle, 42% said they wanted to “wait until more Chinese electric vehicles become available.”

These are therefore Canadians who I already want an electric vehicle and are ready to buy one – at least the next time they buy a car. But instead of getting one, at a time when gas prices are at historic highs (because of, uh, the same aforementioned idiocy), they’re waiting to see more Chinese cars.

This is a massive indictment of everything the West currently has to offer in the electrical field. In the past, it was thought that Western buyers might be skeptical of Chinese brands, viewing them as lower quality, as has long been the stereotype in the West.

But now that dynamic has reversed: Canadians are refusing the options available to them now, and waiting for Chinese options to become available, with the expectation that they would be superior to the traditional options available to them.

And given that it takes time for Chinese brands to establish their networks and ship cars to Canada, that means many Canadian buyers are twiddling their thumbs right now.

This is an interesting situation, given that most other countries already have access to Chinese electric vehicles and they are selling well in those countries. And it perhaps offers us a hint of what might happen to the U.S. auto industry, should there ever be a suspicion that Chinese electric vehicles might arrive here (which, inevitably, in the long run, I’m sure they will).

While U.S. automakers are way behind in electrification and are constantly pushing to reach the same level further behind, it doesn’t seem like the gap is going to narrow. Eventually, Americans will see that the rest of the world, including our two closest neighbors, will have access to cheap, efficient electric vehicles that won’t give them the anxiety of supporting the most evil fuel industry in the history of the world. Eventually, they’ll get tired of spending so much for so little, while everyone else gets great cars at low prices.

There are some moves within U.S. automakers to try to compete, but it remains to be seen whether it’s too little or too late. China literally liberated thousands new models of electric vehicles, with fierce competition driving down prices and increasing quality.

We don’t see this kind of competition happening in the United States, especially after Republicans sent so many EV jobs to China. And having a security blanket of tariffs won’t encourage tougher competition, it will just lull automakers into a false sense of security. The only way to catch a moving target in front of you is to move faster than it, and American automakers simply aren’t doing that right now.

But American consumers will eventually realize this. And electric vehicle buyers in Canada are a signal of what’s to come.

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