Australia, with No Auto Industry to Protect, Is Awash with Chinese Evs

The Washington Post

11:30 JST, March 5, 2025

SYDNEY – Shoppers streamed through a Sydney strip mall on a recent morning, past dueling mattress outlets, and into the neon glow of a BYD megastore. As a robot brought them BYD-branded water bottles, the potential customers examined rows of gleaming electric vehicles.

Vanessa Farrer had already paid for one of the Chinese vehicles – a Sealion 6 plug-in hybrid SUV that cost about $31,000 – and was waiting for it to be delivered a week later.

But her husband, Liam Flood, had been so impressed that he now wanted to take BYD’s new plug-in hybrid pickup truck, called a Shark, for a test drive. Flood, who owns a construction firm, immediately dropped $38,000 on the Shark.

The couple marveled at how inexpensive Chinese electric vehicles were proving popular in Australia, yet were unavailable in the United States.

“I don’t think that will change with Trump back in office,” Flood said.

Indeed, both President Donald Trump and his predecessor, President Joe Biden, have taken a hard line on Chinese EVs, which have made rapid inroads into the international market: BYD built more electric cars than Tesla last year. Biden effectively blocked their import with a 100 percent tariff aimed at protecting U.S. automakers from what he called unfair competition, citing Beijing’s heavy subsidies.

Trump, who launched the trade war with China during his first term, has also promised to save the American auto industry, in part by undoing Biden’s support for EV charging and purchases. He has also hit Beijing with 10 percent tariffs on all products.

But in Australia, which has no auto industry of its own to protect with tariffs, Chinese EVs are suddenly everywhere. They now make up roughly one-third of electric vehicles sold here, and more than tw0-thirds if Tesla’s Chinese-made cars are included.

BYD in particular is booming. Sales rose by 65 percent last year, said David Smitherman, the CEO of EVDirect, BYD’s Australian distributor.

Nearly one in four EVs sold in Australia in 2024 was a BYD. And with sales expected to double this year, the carmaker is on track to surpass Tesla here by year’s end.

Yet, BYD’s success here is complicated for the Australian government, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network with the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

In addition to taking action to protect American automakers from what it said was unfair trading practices, the Biden administration had significant national security concerns about Chinese internet-connected car technology – concerns that persist in the Trump administration.

Shortly before leaving office, the Biden administration blocked vehicle software and hardware from China, effectively barring Chinese cars by 2029, over fears Beijing could use them to spy or cause havoc.

Officials from the U.S. Justice and Commerce departments briefed their Australian counterparts in October, urging them to also restrict Chinese connected car technology, but Canberra was noncommittal, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

Australia’s Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for cybersecurity, said in a statement that it is “closely monitoring the developments in the U.S. on this matter and … proactively engaging with the U.S. Government to understand the implications of any proposed regulation.”

Some China hawks here are calling for Canberra to follow suit, accusing the government of prioritizing cheap EVs and relations with Beijing.

“This is an almighty security risk that simply can’t be ignored,” said Justin Bassi, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank that receives defense funding and takes a hard line on China. “Australia seems absent from the debate.”

Home Affairs officials have said in Parliament that internet connected Chinese cars could collect and share travel data, audio recordings and imagery of sensitive locations, or receive malicious software updates.

An illustration of just how complicated this is: It emerged at the end of last year that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke drives a Chinese EV.

Burke and Home Affairs declined to comment, but the government has said Burke informed officials and security agencies of the Chinese EV and was given advice on the appropriate precautions, which he has taken.

Consumer choice

While politicians in the United States, Canada and Europe are trying to protect their auto industries from Chinese EVs, the collapse of Australia’s auto industry a decade ago means consumers here have little to lose.

“From our point of view, the more competitive the global auto landscape becomes, the better,” said Huw McKay, an economist and visiting fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra. “That is good for consumer choice.”

The rapid growth of Chinese models means EVs now account for 10 percent of new car sales in Australia, slightly higher than in the United States, and EV market share is expected to double by 2027. This could help curb pollution in a country long wedded to petrol-guzzling pickups and where transportation accounts for more than one-fifth of carbon emissions.

“The Australian attitude toward things like industrial subsidies is if you want to waste your taxpayers’ money subsidizing vehicles you’re going to sell to us, then thank you very much,” McKay added with a laugh.

BYD has six models for sale in Australia, including the Dolphin, a hatchback that BYD says is the first EV available for less than $30,000 Australian dollars, or about $19,000 U.S.

Price was a factor for Greg Pointing, who wanted an EV when it was time for a new car two years ago. He chose a BYD that, at around $30,000, was roughly two-thirds the cost of a Tesla Model Y.

“Chinese vehicles didn’t really have a track record in Australia, so it was a bit of a gamble,” Pointing said.

Tesla’s early EV dominance Down Under is slipping. Sales slumped by 17 percent last year, according to the Electric Vehicle Council. If this trend continues, BYD will surpass Tesla in sales here by year’s end.

Two other Chinese automakers, MG and GWM, increased their EV sales in Australia last year, though they were well behind Tesla and BYD. German carmaker BMW more than doubled its EV sales here, with South Korean companies Hyundai and Kia seeing smaller gains.

Some Americans are stunned to learn Australians can buy dozens of cheap Chinese electric or hybrid cars, said David Crockett, who runs a YouTube channel devoted to BYD.

U.S. viewers sometimes ask Melbourne-based Crockett how they can get their hands on one. Some even tell him they’re trying to buy BY

‘What can they spy on?’

Farrer was initially skeptical about the quality of BYD vehicles. But then she remembered similar fears over Japanese cars in the 1980s and South Korean imports in the 1990s. “Once I saw the cars, I thought this was the same story,” she said. “People just need to get over their prejudices about them being Chinese.”

But she’s not concerned about the possibility her car could be listening to her. When Farrer first went to the megastore, a salesperson said the car had automatic software updates, then hastily added, “but there’s no spying!”

“I thought yeah, right,” she recalled. “But what can they spy on?”

A BYD spokesperson in Australia, James Robinson, declined to comment. Smitherman, from the company’s local distributor, insisted there was no danger the car’s data would be reported back to Beijing. “All of our data is stored in Australia and we’re adhering to all of the privacy legislations and rules,” he said.

But Bassi, the think tank leader, said the government isn’t taking the issue seriously enough. He wants Australia, the United States and other allies to adopt a unified approach to keeping Chinese technology out of critical sectors, including cars, infrastructure, health care and utilities.

Failing that, Australia should take a more cautious approach, he said, as occasional one-off decisions – such as banning Huawei from building its 5G network in 2018 or removing Chinese cameras from Parliament offices in 2023 – were no longer enough.

“We’ve got to stop taking a whack-a-mole approach because it isn’t working,” he said. “Technology is moving faster than governments can.”