BYD Has Major Import Advantage Over Other Chinese Brands Looking to Sell in Canada
Electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD finds itself with an enormous advantage over other Chinese automakers when it comes to entering the freshly reopened Canadian market. Some of the manufacturer's vehicles are already approved for import into the country.
Last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would allow imports of as many as 49,000 vehicles per year from China at a preferred tariff rate. This effectively opened the Canadian market to vehicles from China, as a 100 per cent tariff on vehicles assembled in the Asian country previously made importing vehicles from it too expensive to work.
However, the effect that the agreement will have on the Canadian vehicle landscape remains unclear. It looked like familiar brands with factories in China (Volvo, GM, Tesla, e.g.) might benefit more from this deal than vehicles from Chinese brands since Transport Canada paused new Appendix G intakes for vehicles in 2025.
As a result of the pause, automakers are currently unable to get regulatory pre-clearance to sell imported vehicles in Canada at scale. However, as first noticed by Cardog, BYD was able to get Appendix G pre-clearance before the pause in 2025, meaning that it is not saddled by the same regulatory hurdles as other Chinese brands.
Specifically, the automaker is cleared to import passenger vehicles manufactured at two of its plants — in Shenzhen and Xi’An. The plants produce the Seagull, the Dolphin, the Seal, and Atto 3.
It should be noted that BYD is also cleared to import buses and trucks into Canada under the same approval structure and has already opened an electric bus manufacturing plant in Newmarket, Ont.
Unfortunately, BYD’s plans for the Canadian market remain unclear. AutoTrader reached out to the automaker for comment, but has not yet received a response. What is clear, though, is that if it decides to sell passenger cars in Canada, it will have a big head start on competitors like Xpeng, Nio, and Xiaomi.
