Joe Biden Warns Chinese Electric Cars Can Watch US Citizens

President Joe Biden announced his steps against Chinese electric car manufacturers (photo: x @potus)

JAKARTA - President Joe Biden announced his steps against Chinese electric car manufacturers not to be able to sell electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States due to security risks.

Currently, there are 2.4 million EVs listed in the US, but Biden warns that if China is allowed to flood the EV market, automakers can easily track consumer data at a time when cars are constantly connected to our phones and navigation systems.

He likened the vehicle to a 'wheeled smartphone,' and said its government was investigating its potential impact on national security with a possible future ban on Chinese vehicles entering the American market.

China has made progress in recent years to increase its EV production, accounting for 69 percent of all new global EV sales in December alone. Even about nine million Chinese EVs were sold last year compared to 1.4 million sold in the US.

The concern that BYD will send their EV across the US border has resulted in pressure from policymakers for Biden to take additional steps against Chinese automakers including imposing new rates on Chinese-made vehicles.

China estimates it will sell 11.5 million EVs this year and is reportedly targeting to control 45 percent of the EV market by 2027, while the US estimates 2.5 million by 2028.

Biden said that if China's EV was allowed to develop in the US, the country could "collect sensitive data" and send it back to the People's Republic of China (RRC).

He warned that China could also access electric vehicles remotely or disable them altogether.

The US Department of Commerce is investigating Chinese-made automotive software embedded in their EVs, which can not only track where Americans drive but also where they charge their vehicles or listen to what music and/or podcasts are driving.

The investigation comes as BYD - China's largest EV producer - opens production facilities in Mexico, about 200 miles outside Mexico City.

The concern that BYD will send their EV across the US border has resulted in pressure from policymakers for Biden to take additional steps against Chinese automakers including imposing new rates on Chinese-made vehicles.

Chinese car manufacturer BYD sold three million electric vehicles last year, while the US only sold 1.2 percent of hybrid and EV cars out of 281 million registered in 2023.

China is flooding foreign markets with their cars, Lael Brainard, who leads the president's National Economic Council, told the New York Times.

"Many of those cars can be continuously connected to our infrastructure, potentially with driver's phones, with cars around them. So they collect an incredible amount of information," Brainard said.

The US government is investigating national security risks owned by Chinese automakers against American drivers.

In 2023, BYD sold three million electric vehicles globally, while of the 281 million cars registered last year in the US, only 1.2 percent were electric or hybrid vehicles.

BYD beat Tesla as the best-selling and moving EV producer to reach additional markets including Mexico and the Middle East. However, BYD claims it has no intention of entering the US market.

"We don't plan to come to the US," Stella Li, executive vice president of BYD and CEO of BYD Americas, told Yahoo Finance.

"We don't even consider the northern state [in Mexico]," said Li. We're targeting local markets. That's BYD's strategy.

He called the resistance from policymakers and the slowing growth rate of EVs, saying: This is an interesting market, but very complicated.

However, China's lower-price EV could still lure Americans to buy the vehicle, with some small cars sold for as low as $11,000 while the average EV price in the US sold for US$72,000 (Rp 1.13 billion).

A White House investigation into the national security risks possessed by Chinese automakers against American drivers comes after experts warned that Biden's green energy plan could allow Chinese companies to "expand their global monopoly" and "dominate" the US market.

The green energy plan offers companies tax credit based on their production but raises concerns that Chinese companies could access it.

"The bottom line is that if you take a market like electric vehicle batteries (EVs), or solar cells, where China already has a dominant global position, and you let their companies have facilities in the US and access US taxpayers, you let them extend their global monopoly," Jeff Ferry, head economist at the Coalition for America Makmur told Dailymail.com last week.

Biden seemed to pay attention to this concern when he announced an investigation into the branched China into the US EV market. The Chinese spy balloon entered US territory last year and crossed the US before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

China's use of UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) in critical infrastructure operations risks exposing sensitive information to the RRT authorities, endangering US national security, economic security, and public health and safety, the FBI said.

At the same time, Biden's stance on China's EV appears to reflect warnings from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Chinese-made drones could also jeopardize security by exploiting and exploiting the data used by customers.