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I Set Out to Test-Drive a Chinese EV. Here’s What It Taught Me about Carney’s New Deal

49,000 imported cars may remake our entire auto industry

On a clear April evening, I arrived at Volvo Cars Hamilton in my gas-powered Ford Bronco Sport to test-drive a car that, at first glance, seemed to sit in the middle of Canada’s electric vehicle dilemma.

Canada will allow up to 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles per year to enter the country at a low tariff rate

In Europe, Chinese EVs have helped bring down prices of other lower-cost EV models

Experts see the deal as a step toward reimagining Canada’s auto industry with a shift toward its own EV production

The car waiting for me was a black Volvo EX30 Ultra Twin Motor, a compact electric SUV with a minimalist front end, narrow headlights, and overall smaller and more upright than the vehicle I had driven in. If my Bronco Sport was a sturdy SUV built for North American roads, the EX30 felt quiet, quick, and designed around the idea that electric cars could turn into everyday vehicles.

On the road, the contrast was immediate. The cabin was silent, the acceleration came quickly, and the car moved smoothly over Hamilton’s spring potholes. The sales representative pointed to a speckled trim for the interiors that looked to me like chipped marble or terrazzo. Volvo calls it Particle décor, made from recycled plastic waste such as discarded PVC window frames and roller shutters—a small design detail that’s also part of the car’s environmental pitch.

The idea behind taking the car for a spin was to see what the experience of driving a China-linked EV in Canada would be like. But the EX30 turned out to be more complicated than that. Volvo is a Swedish brand owned by China’s Geely. The EX30 was initially built in China, but Volvo says current Canadian-market EX30s are assembled in Ghent, Belgium. A spokesperson for Volvo Cars later said by email that Volvo no longer has Chinese-produced EX30s in its Canadian stock, though a handful may remain on dealer lots.

That made the EX30 less a clean example of a Chinese EV than an illustration of why the category is becoming harder to define.

And that distinction matters. In 2024, Ottawa followed Washington’s lead and imposed a 100 percent surtax on Chinese-made EVs. That surtax meant an importer would pay an extra amount equal to the declared value of the vehicle, on top of the existing import duty—effectively doubling the tariff burden before the car reached a showroom. But this January, during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to China, Canada announced a new strategic partnership with Beijing that included an opening for Chinese EVs. Canada will allow up to 49,000 Chinese-made EVs a year to enter the country at a low tariff rate of 6.1 percent, without the 100 percent surtax, with the quota coming into effect on March 1.

In a Canadian market that sold nearly 2 million new vehicles in 2025, 49,000 might seem like a small number. But globally, the shift is well underway: the International Energy Agency expected more than one in four cars sold worldwide in 2025 to be electric. And in Canada, 2026 is being called the EV “comeback” year, with Statistics Canada reporting that zero-emission vehicle sales rose 74.7 percent year over year in March, reaching 12.2 percent of all new vehicle sales.

So, at 49,000, the number is still large enough to test........

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