Posted originally on CTH on February 17, 2026 | Sundance 

While the government of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has inked a trade agreement with China to accept cheap imported vehicles in exchange for Beijing purchasing some agricultural products, President Trump has promised those cheap Chinese EVs will never cross the border into the USA.

The Canadian polling on the issue has done a remarkable chang in the past few years.  Now, the majority of Canadians are willing to purchase cheap Chinese EVs. As outlined by Bloomberg, “More than half of Canadians, or 53%, say that knowing an EV was made in China would have no effect on their purchasing decision, according to a new poll by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News.”

Approximately 50,000 Chinese electric vehicles will enter the Canadian market in the first year. “The pact with China includes a provision that part of the quota will be reserved for electric vehicles priced at C$35,000 ($25,700) or less, the government has said.” {SOURCE}

The Canadian government wants a Chinese auto manufacturer, any Chinese auto manufacturer, to build factories in Canada to produce these electric vehicles.  Canada wants the jobs and economic activity because Canada is currently bleeding jobs and economic activity due to the trade conflict with the U.S.

Building cheap Chinese EVs in Canada might help offset a few thousand job losses, but building Chinese EVs in Canada only further ensures there will not be a substantive trade agreement between the USA and Canada once the USMCA (CUSMA) is dissolved.  [More on that coming]

Meanwhile, Chinese EV company Build Your Dream (BYD) has announced they sold 4.6 million vehicles worldwide last year, far surpassing Tesla and even surpassing all of the Ford global auto manufacturing.  BYD is now the sixth largest auto manufacturing company in the world.

[Auto News] […] The 2025 sales figures place BYD at sixth largest among global automakers, meaning Ford slipped to seventh in total global deliveries. Toyota remains the dominant global seller with sales exceeding 10 million units followed by Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Motor (including Kia and Genesis), General Motors, and Stellantis.

BYD’s sixth position in the global automotive sales index is particularly notable for an auto maker that focuses almost exclusively on new energy vehicles (NEVs) — a category that includes battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs). (more)

CTH previously outlined the specific explosion in BYD auto sales HERE.  Europe, Russia, Asia and Australia are flooded with cheap Chinese EVs particularly from the BYD brand.  Canada is now opening themselves to face the same issue.