Another exception is that non-U.S. citizens can bring their foreign vehicles to the country without obtaining a U.S. license plate, said Cao Yang, owner of CDM Import, a Los Angeles-based company is exploring a new market for Chinese vehicle imports. CAO has helped promote some new and larger Chinese cars for temporary delivery to the United States.
In order to bring the car into the United States through this route, it must leave the country within 12 months and cannot change hands during this period. In addition, China has its own rules for exporting cars for personal use. Typically, it only allows vehicles to leave the country for six months and requires the owner to pay a huge deposit. Given the shipping time, this means that this particular vehicle is usually only allowed to stay in the United States for about three months, which is only suitable for test drives for car enthusiasts, not everyday use. But, in a short window, “You can drive with Chinese license plates. They will print out the temporary import certificate and you just have to stick to the windshield,” Cao said.
The same rules apply to Mexican citizens who come to the United States. And, as Chinese electric cars have become ubiquitous in Mexico and many people living on the border often commute between the two countries, it has become easy to find Chinese electric cars in Los Angeles today. CAO claims to see Chinese brands like Byd, MG and Roewe several times a month, usually driven by non-Chinese owners.
The final approach is through the automaker, which can introduce foreign vehicles for research, road testing, display and other purposes. Chinese companies like Byd, Li Auto and Nio operate in the U.S. and can legally bring their own vehicles, CAO said.
Vehicles imported in this way must carry manufacturer boards and cannot be sold to individuals. However, because these vehicles are allowed on public roads, some companies can allow their employees and even influencers to ride. Byd has many Chinese models at the company’s Pasadena design center, CAO said. “I’ve seen their staff drive home a few times. I even saw it [one] Stop where I live,” he said.
According to his recent media interview, Ford CEO Jim Farley is equally famous to fly five Chinese electric cars to Chicago and keeps “driving them.”
“As a normal business, all automakers buy competitive vehicles globally for benchmarking. Once completed, if they buy vehicles in the same country, they can be resold. Other vehicles (once the benchmark is completed, they can be processed, they can be processed,” we asked if they were disposed of, or is he still driving? “We have nothing to share the status of these vehicles.”
Expensive hobbies
With so many restrictions, cars from China to the United States are much more expensive than their original price in the local market.
Weldon said that while his company does not import cars from China, comparable prices for cars from Japan to the U.S. are usually between $105 and $130 per cubic meter, meaning that in transportation alone, the average car price may be between $1,000 and $2,500. Then there is the cost of hiring a customs agent to handle it, registering at the local site, and paying an insurance company willing to take an unusual vehicle (usually much harder than expected) before legally getting on the road.
