The US’s America First policy and its high tariffs are keeping Chinese cars out of the market. Tariffs as high as 100% have been slapped on Chinese autos, especially EVs making them prohibitively expensive for American showrooms.
Australia already boasts some 23 Chinese brands on its shores
But while America’s doors are still closed to cars from China, several countries including Russia, Mexico, Australia, Belgium, Norway and the UAE have become huge testing grounds for Chinese cars. While both Russia and Mexico currently import around 30 different car brands from China, Australia is presently hovering at around 23 brands and more are expected to arrive in the next year or so.
Let us focus on Australia here as it it the closest to the US in terms of cultural origins, cultural diversity, lifestyle and language. Australia expects around 40% of all cars sold there by 2035 to be Chinese, significantly outperforming established Japanese and Koreans brands. In fact, if the US ever wanted to see what a Chinese car onslaught looked like, they just need to look at the Australia car market.
Chinese brands making waves Downunder include big names like BYD, Geely, GWM, and Chery, as well as newer entrants such as Jaecoo, LDV, Leapmotor, Deepal, Avatr, Foton, Livan and Zeekr. MG, while technically a British brand, is also now owned by a Chinese company (SAIC) and is a significant player in the Australian market.
China sells hybrids and EVs for maximum penetration
While some brands offer hybrids and plug-in hybrids to appease those buyers not yet ready to make the switch to full-electric, most Chinese cars sold in Australia are electric.
The Australian market is seeing a surge in Chinese car brands due to several factors with the first being that the country does not place tariffs on car imports. Other reasons include competitive pricing—especially when compared to rivals like Japanese and Korean cars, more pleasing designs and features, improved safety levels, increased manufacturing capacity in China, and growing consumer interest in electric vehicles.
In fact, Holden (a GM subsidiary), Ford Australia, Toyota and Mitsubishi all used to design and manufacture cars in Australia until around a decade ago when they all shuttered their production facilities due to a combination of a small domestic market, high production costs, increased competition from cheaper imports and the reduction of subsidies and tariffs.
So as of today, BYD is the biggest selling Chinese carmaker in Australia. In June 2025, BYD achieved a top five sales result of 8,156 units—which is a 367% increase over sales of June last year—becoming the first Chinese brand to do so, largely driven by the Shark 6 pickup truck, or ute according to WhichCar. BYD also surpassed Tesla in total sales in Australia for the first half of 2025 according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
This article was originally published on forbes.com.
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