Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley (짐 팔리) said Chinese electric vehicles should be blocked from entering the U.S. market.

On April 14 local time, EV outlet InsideEVs reported that Farley warned in a recent Fox News interview that Chinese EVs could have a destructive impact on the U.S. auto industry and manufacturing more broadly.

On Chinese EVs entering the United States, Farley said, "They must not be brought into our country." He said, "Manufacturing is the core of America. If we lose it to China’s export offensive, it will be a major blow to the United States."

He pointed to Chinese government subsidies and excess capacity as problems. China has more than 100 EV makers, and companies such as BYD and Xiaomi often release vehicles that offer more features at lower prices than U.S. manufacturers, he said. As a result, price competition in China has intensified, and inflows of Chinese-made EVs are increasing in Europe and Canada. Farley said competition with these Chinese companies "cannot be a fair fight."

Farley also stressed that China’s production capacity far exceeds U.S. demand. He said China’s domestic auto market is 29 million vehicles, while its production capacity exceeds 50 million, and that China has enough manufacturing capacity to handle both U.S. auto production and sales.

He also mentioned security issues. Farley raised cybersecurity and personal data risks, saying Chinese vehicles can collect large amounts of data through cameras. The U.S. government has also drawn up rules to ban connected-vehicle technology in Chinese-made vehicles for the same reason during the Biden administration.

The policy environment is also increasing wariness in the U.S. auto industry. Canada introduced a new policy applying lower tariff rates to small-scale imports of Chinese-made cars, and Farley said it is necessary to prevent these vehicles from crossing the border into the U.S. market.

In U.S. politics and industry, calls are growing on a bipartisan basis to keep Chinese automakers in check. In March, the heads of 5 auto industry lobbying groups sent a letter to the president and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging that Chinese automakers be excluded from the U.S. market due to economic and national security risks. Earlier this month, Democratic lawmakers also said Chinese companies building factories in the United States could give them an economic advantage that U.S. automakers would find difficult to overcome and could trigger a national security crisis.

Amid this situation, Ford is using Chinese companies as a benchmark for global competition. Farley said Ford needs to release EVs that can compete head-on with Chinese companies, and mentioned a new affordable EV to be produced in Kentucky. Even if Chinese EVs are not sold in the United States right away, global automakers including Ford already have to compete with Chinese companies in other markets such as Europe and Canada.