General Motors and Ford would need to stop importing vehicles to the US from China under a proposed rule cracking down on Chinese software and hardware, a US Commerce Department official has told Reuters.
The rule would also affect other automakers selling or building vehicles in the US, such as Volvo Cars and BYD, the report said.
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GM sells the Buick Envision and Ford the Lincoln Nautilus, both assembled in China, in the US.
Ford did not comment to Reuters but, in the first six months of 2024, GM sold about 22,000 Envisions and Ford sold 17,500 Nautilus SUVs in the US.
“We anticipate at this point that any vehicle that is manufactured in China and sold in the US would fall within the prohibitions,” Liz Cannon, who heads the Commerce Department’s information and communications technology office, told the news agency. GM and Ford were aware, she added, that “going forward” that production in China for the US market “would need to be shut down in China and moved elsewhere.”
Reuters said GM did not address if it thought it would have to halt sales of the Envision but added the “government has an important role to set clear policies” on security issues.
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By GlobalDataCommerce told the news agencies it would allow companies to seek a “specific authorisation” to continue sales of vehicles or components.
China’s BYD North America, which builds electric buses in Lancaster, California, could be impacted. The company did not immediately comment to Reuters.
“We will have to work with them to better understand their supply chain,” Cannon reportedly said. “They will have to come in for a specific authorisation.”
For example, software would likely be prohibited if it were developed by a team of Chinese employees in that country for a Chinese automaker. But software would likely be allowed if it were developed by Chinese employees working in another country for a non Chinese company.
Reuters reported in May four Chinese vehicle models are sold in the US including the Polestar 2 and Volvo S90 sedans – Polestar and Volvo are affiliates of Chinese automaker Geely.
Cannon told Reuters she expected companies like Volvo would meet with Commerce “to work with us to talk about ways that they could mitigate the risk and we are open to that” and the agency could grant them an authorisation.
Volvo Cars told the news agency: “We are reviewing the proposal from the US Commerce Department and are analysing any potential impact it might have on us and the auto industry in the US.”
