Signs are increasing that China is outpacing competitors, including the United States, in electric vehicle innovation and not just in copying and subsidizing technologies as its manufacturers roll out new and advanced features.
China’s apparent position at the frontier of EV technology suggests that the U.S. government’s policies to prevent China from dominating markets are outdated.
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The latest sign that China is ahead in technology came last week when the country’s leading EV manufacturer, BYD, launched a new charging system that can charge an EV in five minutes. That is similar to the time needed to pump gas for a traditional vehicle.
“The upper end of automakers in China are certainly all around better, better battery tech, [and] better integration of the user experience,” said John Helveston, associate professor at George Washington University.
Helveston said BYD’s fast charging system is a milestone the industry has long wanted to reach. He added that the best domestic automaker, Tesla, cannot reach half of that speed. Tesla’s fastest charging method is the Supercharger, which can take up to 15 minutes for a 200-mile range.
Chinese EVs have demonstrated superior ranges. Nio’s ET7 can travel more than 600 miles on a single charge, compared to U.S. manufacturer Rivian’s R1T, which can travel up to 420 miles, and Tesla’s Model S, which has a 348-mile range.
Range and charging are particularly important for winning over EV-skeptical consumers. The top fears among would-be buyers are that EVs take too long to charge or are unable to go the distance.
Josiah Neeley, a resident senior fellow on the think tank R Street’s energy policy team, said innovations in China are positives for the industry as a whole.
“Obviously, we don’t want to fall behind other countries when it comes to any technology, including electric vehicles. But when someone anywhere figures out how to do something better, that will help us to do the same,” Neeley said.
Battery-powered vehicles made in China have continued to surpass much of the world in technology and sales. BYD on Monday topped $107 billion in revenue for last year, outdoing Tesla, which reached $97.7 billion in 2024.
Chinese battery-powered vehicles have taken the world stage, with exports of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and hybrid electric vehicles reaching $44 billion in 2024, according to the Atlantic Council. The Chinese government has made an effort to ensure its vehicles are at the top of the world market by offering significant subsidies to its EV industry.
Until recently, “everything stayed inside China,” said Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Institute, a research and advisory group in the EV sector. “That’s no longer the case, and they’re going global.”
“It’s happened at an extremely quick pace, and it’s caught chief executives of western automakers off guard,” he said.
Last year, the Biden administration implemented 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to prevent them from taking over the market. Dunne said that without former President Joe Biden’s 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs, the U.S. market would be flooded with battery-powered cars from China.
That’s because the BYD Seagull, for instance, can sell for as low as the equivalent of $10,000 in China. It would sell in the U.S. for far cheaper than the domestic competition.
The Biden administration blamed the Chinese government’s backing of the industry for the advantage that Chinese EVs have in the marketplace.
“[W]e are seeing an increase in business investment in a number of ‘new’ industries targeted by the PRC’s industrial policy. That includes electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and solar,” former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last year.
“China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous capacity. Actions taken by the PRC today can shift world prices. And when the global market is flooded by artificially cheap Chinese products, the viability of American and other foreign firms is put into question,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is taking a different stance on the domestic EV industry as it seeks to slash policies that help to transition from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles. For instance, Republican lawmakers have plans to cut tax credits for consumers who want to purchase battery-powered cars and incentivize EV innovation and manufacturing. Those credits were created or enlarged by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act passed by Democrats and signed by Biden. President Donald Trump has long criticized EVs, although he has warmed to Tesla, which is run by his close ally Elon Musk.
Helveston said the administration’s efforts to undo policies that support the domestic electric vehicle industry could hinder U.S. automakers’ ability to compete with China.
“The Chinese automakers are fully onboard with EVs and are capturing other global markets outside of North America,” Helveston said.
Dunne said policies by the Biden administration to incentivize EV demand were “important” and helped the industry by leading to investments in the battery supply chains, with North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, and Ohio building new battery plants.
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“Without incentives on the demand side for EVs, we can expect consumers to sort of revert to what they know, and that’s gasoline and maybe [plug-in hybrid vehicles],” Dunne said.
“That makes it harder for Detroit automakers to ramp up their EV products and less incentive to do so,” he said. “The risk is that we fall further behind China, and so we’re kicking the can down the proverbial road, and we’ll face them later and go, ‘gosh, we’re really behind now.’”