Chinese automakers pitch American-style cars as U.S. stays shut

BYD says it can dethrone Toyota without U.S. sales

The vehicles on display in Paris read like a catalog of American tastes: three-row luxury SUVs with built-in refrigerators and seats that conform to a passenger’s body, pickup trucks that emphasize towing power and fuel economy, and fast-charging electric vehicles built for family road trips. Chinese automakers are betting the offerings will help them aggressively expand overseas and offset slowing sales and hyper-competition at home, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported from the show.

The strategy runs into a hard constraint: Chinese cars are effectively blocked from the U.S., the world’s second-largest auto market, by high tariffs and restrictions on connected software. Executives at the Paris Motor Show emphasized that global expansion is vital to becoming the world’s top car companies, but many face the hurdle of being shut out of the U.S.

EV and hybrid giant BYD has brushed off American plans for now. Stella Li, BYD’s executive vice president, said the company intends to dethrone Toyota as the world’s largest automaker by sales and that this can be achieved without selling cars in the U.S. Toyota sold 11.3 million vehicles in 2025, compared with 4.6 million by BYD. “We don’t need the U.S. market to be number one,” Li told The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the show.

Other executives said access to the U.S. is necessary for any automaker looking to become one of the biggest in the world. “The U.S. market is a very crucial market for all of the participants in the motor industry,” said Zhao Fei, general manager of Changan Group. State-owned Changan, China’s fourth-largest automaker, is targeting 1.5 million vehicle exports outside China by the end of the decade — more than double its total in 2025 — as part of a plan to become a top-10 global automaker. “You can’t be one of the 10 biggest without at least having a certain share in North America,” said Klaus Zyciora, Changan’s global chief executive adviser.

The restrictions could tighten. A bill moving through Congress is seeking to turn the tariffs and software restrictions into a legislative ban, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lawmakers and auto industry executives argue that camera-equipped, internet-connected Chinese cars represent a national security threat and could eviscerate a crucial domestic industry. Days before a summit last month with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, President Trump alarmed some lawmakers when he said he would welcome China’s automakers into the country, so long as they built vehicles locally.

Chinese automakers had plenty on offer that might entice American buyers if the rules ever change. Larger vehicles are becoming more common in China, said Nestor Wu, head of international business for Beijing-based Li Auto, which showed off a feature-rich five-seat SUV in Paris. “Full-size SUVs are almost everywhere,” he said. Wu said the U.S. is a target market for Li Auto, but entry depends on whether trade tensions and other restrictions can be resolved.

Chinese car companies have already pushed to the U.S. doorstep. They hold more than 20% of Mexico’s market, and they are set to break into Canada, which lowered its tariff rate on tens of thousands of Chinese EVs, according to The Wall Street Journal. “As long as there’s opportunities, of course we will enter a market,” Changan’s Zhao said of Canada. Geely Auto, which owns Chinese brands including Zeekr and Lynk & Co., said last week that it would enter Canada in 2027. The company has previously said it is considering expansion into the U.S. when regulations are sorted.

Even without U.S. access, Chinese carmakers are taking subtle jabs at Detroit. In a presentation at the Paris show, BYD’s Li rattled off the expanding portfolio of models the company sells to European customers, including a plug-in hybrid pickup truck called the Shark. She said the Shark has “more power and torque than the legacy ICE rivals,” referring to the internal combustion engine. “It’s the pickup redefined,” Li said.

Other exhibitors were more circumspect about the difficulty of any expansion plans. Linktour, a new brand owned by a Chinese textile company, is offering tiny aluminum-framed cars that will compete against Fiat Topolinos in Europe, with no plan to sell vehicles in China. “It is already almost impossible to create a new brand [in China],” said Leon Zhang, Linktour’s vice president of sales and marketing. Linktour is studying the market for low-speed cars in the U.S. but has no plans to enter at this time. “To enter into the North American countries is not a very easy thing,” Zhang said.