BYD, Chery, and Geely preparing to launch EV sales in Canada this year

> Chery has taken a different approach, focusing on building groundwork for its brand portfolio in Canada. The automaker has filed trademarks for several sub-brands including Omoda, Jaecoo, Exeed, Luxeed, and iCar. Recruiters linked to Chery have also been actively contacting Canadian automotive professionals about roles tied to engineering, regulatory certification, and intelligent vehicle systems. They won't be the first out of the gate, but I want to support Chery most. > Chery invests more heavily in overseas markets than other Chinese manufacturers, and many of its vehicles are assembled outside China using complete or semi-complete knock-down kits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chery

I’m shocked Apple didn’t have iCar locked down.

Where are all the it’s going be be all Chinese Tesla car folks?

I am interested in geely because they already have some sales infrastructure because they own polestar and volvo. The atto3 also looks good

It's a good thing if BYD, Geely, and Chery are planning to bring their cars to Canada. Having said that, in the first half of 2026, it could mostly be Teslas, Volvos, and Polestars that are imported to Canada, because they already have established dealerships here. It will probably be the second half of 2026, at the earliest, before we begin to see cars from BYD come to Canada, since it takes time for BYD to setup.

Hopefully, they are better now. I remember, 15 years ago in Europe we called these cherry-geely “the cans of death “. They mad extremely low quality, cheap looking and made, absolutely unsafe Nd unreliable cars. I was quite excited that North Americans don’t import this shit and here we are

You can't afford it anyway

Geely has a better reputation in China, while BYD is a highly controversial brand even there. They've expanded their production so quickly that their car's quality is sometimes a little bit of a concern. MG, Chery, and Geely are more like traditional car manufacturers. When they scale their production, they tend to be more conservative, and having significant less quality issues.

Chery iCar V23 and 03 would both be absolutely perfect if they come!

> I remember, 15 years ago in Europe First of all, 15 years ago it was Chinese exported ICE cars. China is not good at ICE, let's clear this up. If you want a good ICE car, you get a Japanese car like Toyota. China's specialty is EVs and this is an EV forum so I am surprised you aren't up to date with the latest information. If you want a good EV, then Chinese EVs are up there because that's what they specialize in (and if you get a Chinese BEV, all the better because there are no ICE components at all in a BEV). The most important component in an EV is the battery. And the two biggest battery makers in the entire world for EVs is CATL and BYD, both Chinese companies. Your biggest and well known auto brands, including Mercedes, Porsche, Volkswagen, BMW, Telsa, Toyota, Ford, GM, etc, are using batteries from CATL or BYD. Notice how I included several of Europe's most popular auto companies there, that are using Chinese batteries - they must know something that you don't know, if they are using Chinese batteries. Since you are in an EV subreddit, you should also know that EVs are far less likely to catch fire than ICE cars. EVs are much safer than ICE cars in that way. In addition, the top Chinese EV brands are getting 5 star safety ratings, the highest safety ratings, in Europe's NCAP at the moment. There is the odd Chinese brand that scored poorly in the NCAP safety tests (ie. Dongfeng), but generally, the top Chinese brands get 5 star safety ratings in NCAP in Europe. Finally, Chinese EVs are driven across Australia now, and BYD has been in Australia for the last 4 years. If there were widespread safety issues with Chinese EVs in Australia, we would have heard it by now. And I visit the Australia auto and EV subreddits a lot, and also the Whirlpool Australian automotive forum, and I am not reading widespread safety issues with Chinese EVs in general (again, aside from Dongfeng who scored poorly in the NCAP safety test). You are free to go to the Australian auto or EV subreddits and ask yourself. I also check in at specific European automotive subreddits such as the UK car and EV subreddit from time to time, and I am not seeing widespread safety issues either. It's not 15 years ago, and it's not ICE cars that are interesting Canadians. It's EVs (which is China's specialty), and in the last several years, Chinese EVs are being driven in Australia and Europe, and there isn't widespread reports of safety issues (plus the 5 star NCAP safety rating gives another data point on their safety).

Was impressed with byd when I was in Australia last year