The Xiaomi YU7 SUV is seen during a launch event in Beijing on May 22, 2025 Photo by Adek Berry /Getty

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“Bring us cheap EVs.” It’s a mantra almost as old as the electric-vehicle revolution itself. Whether it be the mythical price parity with ICEs we were so long ago promised or the more recent pledge of USD$20,000 — oops, now 25-large — battery-powered pickups, the one constant in our decade-long mad rush to battery power is the conviction that electric vehicles will finally get their teeth into the North American zeitgeist when they’re affordable. And by “affordable,” I mean “cheap.” Range anxiety is but a myth, we’re told, and the infrastructure more than ready. All that’s lacking is the right price.

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The thing is, we might not want cheap EVs. Not in the United States, to be sure, if Torque News has its numbers right. In a recently penned analysis — subtitled “Americans don’t really want low-cost EVs, despite the noise from the vocal minority” — author John Goreham says “six months into 2026, Americans have demonstrated a complete disinterest in buying affordable battery-electric vehicles.”

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Chevrolet’s Bolt, for example, has sold but 4,226 units in the first six months of this year. The Bolt, remember, costs but $28,995 south of the border — not so much more than the supposedly all-conquering Slate EV pickup, but with far more range and a heck of a lot more interior amenities — and yet, Goreham says, General Motors has 118 days of inventory sitting in dealership lots.

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Nissan’s Leaf, the second-most-affordable EV in the U.S., is doing even worse, selling only about 1,600 units so far this year. That’s down 57% from last year, says Goreham, when the Leaf transitioned from the previous generation to this new, far more accomplished — and better-value — model.

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Rear view of the Bolt EV LT in Marina Blue Photo by GM

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Now, to be fair, both the Bolt and Leaf are doing better in Canada, Chevy selling 3,072 examples of its little electric hatchback and Nissan 2,725 of its iconic Leaf. In comparative terms, that’s markedly better than America’s sales, but that’s largely because of the return of green-car incentives, both federal and provincial.

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As for the much-ballyhooed rush to EVs resulting from recent spikes in gas prices, that has pretty much petered out. After a dramatic increase in requests for Electric Vehicle Affordability Program (EVAP) incentives in April, May and June have seen applications return to normal. Considering that these new EVAP incentives are only available on cheap(ish) EVs — with a “final transaction” price of less than $50,000 — there’s not a lot of evidence that Canadians, other than perhaps Quebecers, are in any rush to buy inexpensive electrics right now either.

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More importantly, if EVs aren’t selling in the United States, that will make their availability in Canada more problematic. No matter how much advocates protest that automakers will continue to supply Canada and La Belle Province with EVs even if they’re discontinued in the United States, history suggests the supply of battery-powered vehicles, at least those produced by legacy automakers, will be reduced. Indeed, Chevrolet has already said it’s dumping the Bolt some time in 2027. Without American volume, there is no Canada-only market for most vehicles, especially relatively slow-sellers like EVs.

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That only leaves Chinese EVs. The question, then, is can they save the day?

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference at Ritan Park in Beijing on January 16, 2026 Photo by Adek Berry /Getty

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That’s certainly the expectation, isn’t it? The federal government certainly made that clear when it mandated that as many as half of all the electric vehicles imported from across the Pacific — four years hence in 2030, when 70,000 will be allowed into the country — must cost less than CDN$35,000. With EV influencers trumpeting the incredible amazingly low-cost EVs Chinese automakers miraculously produce, Canadians have been lead to expect a flood of truly affordable cars in the near future.

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Or maybe not.

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The first caveat — and one most analysts, even Driving’s own — seem to have missed is that that $35,000 is not the cost you’ll pay in a dealership, but the “imported cost” as it gets off the boat. That includes the cost of manufacturing said EV, the amount spent shipping it, and insuring its voyage. What is most definitely not included, however, is the markup that occurs from the time it lands at a Canadian dock and when it hits a dealership floor.

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BYD EVs waiting to be loaded onto a ship at the international container terminal of Taicang Port in Suzhou, in China’s eastern Jiangsu province Photo by Getty

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Now, in normal circumstances, this would be a reasonable figure. For traditional automakers, applying said markup — settling on the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for a new model — has always been a delicate balance between volume and profitability. Higher prices generate more of the latter per vehicle, while lower MSRPs will benefit the former. The perfect balance is an intersection of the two curves, maximizing the total return.

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Except that balance is not available to China’s automakers coming to Canada. Our strict tariff-rate quota — again, 49,000 in the first year; 70,000 in year five — has to be shared between Tesla, Volvo, Polestar, Geely, Zeekr, BYD, Dongfeng, and God knows who else. Maximizing volume, in other words, is not going to be an option, certainly not by the standards Chinese automakers are used to. That means — and incredibly, this last seems lost on our government — the only way they can make money is to generate as much profit per car as they can.

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That need to maximize profits is exacerbated by the fact that China’s domestic auto market is in the toilet. Despite the fawning headlines trumpeting China’s superiority, sales are down some 20% in the last few months. Even before that, the industry was in the price war to end all price wars as more than 100 automakers all vied for a piece of the (admittedly large) pie. Two years ago, few of China’s homegrown automakers were turning a profit, the recent turmoil only exacerbating how little money these giants are making at home. So, their desire to export to markets like Canada is not so much about expanding their portfolios as it is needing to shore up their pitiful bottom lines back home.

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The newly launched electric BYD Atto 3 is displayed during the launch of the Chinese-made BYD brand in Jakarta, on January 18, 2024 Photo by Bay Ismoyo /Getty

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Nor should we, if we’d bothered researching the export markets they’ve already entered, be surprised if they demand generous markups. In fact, it’s been pretty much the rule in export markets the world over. For instance, a BYD Atto 3, the company’s C-segment sport-cute, costs a little more than $20,000 (all figures in Canadian dollars) in China. Exported to Australia, which has no tariffs on imported electric vehicles to bump up the costs, it retails for almost $40,000. In Germany, which imposes a 27% tariff on BYDs, that MSRP would then be close to $65,000.

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As to the “why” of that seeming huge disparity, BYD’s wholesale price in China is actually $19,500, which, on top of China’s value-added tax, allows for a paltry $600 of dealer profit. In Australia, once you’ve factored in shipping and port fees as well as various and sundry fees, that wholesale price is about $23-large. That means, even in Australia, the most aggressively-priced of its export markets, BYD is making $17,000 on a car it probably spent $15,000 making.

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It gets even worse when you look at Germany. Once you’ve added in duties — a not-insignificant $6,000 in the E.U. — and other charges, BYD’s “landed cost” is about $30,000, against that MSRP of $65,000. That’s more than a 100% markup, and means that an Atto3 sells for about $43,000 more in Germany than it does in China.

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In the United Kingdom, those numbers look worse still. Because the U.K.’s import duty is only 10%, it’s landed cost is closer to $25-large, but, with a retail price closer to $70,000, the markup is more than $44,000, and the car costs $48,000 more than it does back home. The lesson — and this bears remembering when you read stories about Chinese EVs costing USD$12,000 in their home market — is what a car costs in China has precious little to do with how much it will cost in Canada.

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Rows of Seagull EVs (also known as the Dolphin Surf) from China’s BYD sit next to the company’s Xian cargo ship at a port Photo by BYD /Weibo

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Making similar comparisons with other cars shows equally inflated foreign pricing. For instance, a few years ago, the Telegraph estimated the BYD Seagull that costs but CDN$11,000 in China retails for the equivalent of CDN$35,000 in Britain. And, according to a 2024 report — Ain’t No Duty High Enough — by the Rhodium Group, BYD made but CDN$2,100 profit on a Seal U it sold in China, but recouped the equivalent of $22,900 when it sold the very same car in the E.U. In plain English, export markets, like ours, are the cash cows that make up for the cut-throat pricing back home.

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2027 Dongfeng Box 01 Photo by Dongfeng

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That said, a base Box start for less than CDN$15,000 back home (wholesale price unknown, but lower) which means Dongfeng can easily price it below the $35,000 mark and still make a tidy profit. It’s also worth noting that Dongfeng is reportedly one of the major automakers getting severely squeezed in its home market, and the antidote for its lack of profitability is to try to increase overseas sales to 40% of its total production over the next three years.

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The lesson to be learned — even by those rabidly in favour of electric vehicles — is that there will be a cost to this new initiative allowing Chinese EVs into Canada with minimal tariffing. Despite their (significant) advantages in automotive engineering and huge subsidies (conservatively estimated at USD$250 billion and counting), the fact remains that China’s automakers are largely unprofitable in their home market. They need foreign markets, along with their incredible markups, to survive. Local auto production will be the price paid for their avarice.

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The scourge of foreign manufacturers used to be “dumping,” a policy of charging less for a product in foreign markets than it sells for in an exporter’s home market, which makes the current situation — charging more for the same product abroad because you can’t make any money selling it domestically — such a novelty. Anomaly or not, though, it’s just as dangerous to our economy.

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