I drove three Chinese cars — here’s why they would clean up in the US

It only took a brief drive in a Zeekr 7X to convince me: Chinese cars are now competitive and could be sold in the US tomorrow. The compact battery-electric crossover, a bestseller in Europe, is aimed directly at the Tesla Model Y with its five seats, two rows, impressive road grip, energetic performance, and smooth ride. Its price in China is around $32,000 — about $7,000 cheaper than Elon Musk’s crossover.

If you’ve followed automotive news recently, you might come away thinking Chinese cars are destined for the US, with Geely among the best positioned to break through first. That’s certainly a possibility — especially after President Donald Trump seemingly threw open the doors to Chinese automakers in a recent speech. The quid pro quo: They must be built in the US. Geely recently confirmed it was “actively evaluating” a possible entry into the world’s second-largest auto market and would have a decision within three years.

Geely is best placed to build cars here: It has had an auto plant up and running in South Carolina since 2018, where it builds Volvo and Polestar vehicles. If Geely does attempt to enter the US market under its own brands, it likely won’t happen before 2029.

Still, climbing out of the Zeekr 7X, I wondered — even if it were built in the US — whether it could legally be sold here. Will restrictions on automotive software that originates in China keep it out indefinitely? Or will Geely find a way to convince the US government that its technology poses no threat to US national security?

Most US drivers won’t have heard of Geely, if they think about Chinese cars at all. Yet last year, parent company Geely Holding sold more than 4.1 million cars, making it China’s second-largest carmaker after BYD. It offers multiple brands that include Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Malaysia’s Proton, Geely, Lynk & Co, Zeekr, and others.

During CES last month, I got a chance for brief track drives in three vehicles from three different Geely brands. The last time I’d driven a Chinese car was August 2020; that Xpeng P7 simply wasn’t ready for primetime. It was one of only two cars I’ve driven where I could overwhelm the anti-lock brakes. But Chinese automakers innovate so fast that a 2020 Xpeng might as well have been from the late 1990s.

The Geely cars I drove would likely generate strong demand here in the US — as they already do in Mexico. That’s terrifying Detroit and European automakers alike, with GM CEO Mary Barra recently sounding the alarm about Chinese EVs coming to North America. New Chinese brands might choose to target anything from the low end of the mass market to the premium and luxury sector.

First up was the Geely Starray, a compact crossover from the group’s mass-market brand, powered by a 215-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter gasoline engine driving the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. It had a full suite of ADAS safety functions, including adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capabilities.

The contrasting black roof over silver paint suggested high-end features, and interior equipment — powered front lumbar and leg-support bolsters on the driver’s seat, heated and cooled front seats — confirmed the impression. Interior plastics were comparable to those of Korean cars a couple of generations ago. The rear doors opened only to about a 45-degree angle, which limits access for larger people, baby seats, and so forth — odd for a family car in Mexico.

On the road, the Starray was pleasant enough. It accelerated smoothly to almost highway speeds — the track layout didn’t allow for long high-speed runs — and grip and roadholding were better than expected. But it felt sluggish when driven enthusiastically, and it was hardly a rewarding driver’s car. While I wouldn’t personally buy this one, plenty of value-oriented buyers likely would — at the right price. In Mexico, the Starray’s base price is about $31,630 in US currency. Our ride-along Geely rep twice suggested it could be a $25,000 car.

I switched into a Lynk & Co 09, a midsize SUV from a brand it positions in Europe and Central America as a premium offering. Described by my Geely minder as a “hybrid,” it didn’t drive like one: Hard acceleration didn’t have that instant electric-motor thrust evident in virtually any modern hybrid. A small amount of added power arrived after a significant lag.

It turned out that the 09’s 2.0-liter, four-cylinder gas engine was paired with a Volvo mild-hybrid system that uses a 48-volt electric motor between the engine and eight-speed automatic transmission for a total output of 254hp among all four wheels. With a battery of just 0.2 kilowatt-hours, it adds incremental power to the engine, recovers some energy under regenerative braking, and restarts the engine at stops. The 48-volt system improves fuel economy, but plays a minimal role in propelling this 4,660-pound vehicle—unlike a full hybrid system operating at 300 volts that could power the car alone at low speeds.

Significantly, the 09 is built on the same SPA platform as the Volvo XC90 sold in the United States from 2016 onward. Its styling is the antithesis of the traditional, reassuring Volvo look: The headlights sit almost on top of the fenders, with three lengthwise light tubes under the glass. The bluff front end’s huge grille wraps its upper corners around the fender corners to hold the rest of the lights. The rear is more conventional SUV, with a horizontal light bar like so many others. Powered door handles give the sleek look of many EVs. In Mexico, its base price is $53,750 in US dollars. In China, on the other hand, the mild-hybrid 09 starts at $33,000.

The Zeekr 7X was my final test drive, the battery-electric crossover that clearly has the Tesla Model Y in its crosshairs. The 7X is built on the Geely SEA platform that also underpins the Volvo EX30 subcompact hatchback — though its wheelbase is a significant 4 inches longer, so its rear seat will hold adult-size humans. The 100kWh battery powers either a 416hp rear motor or a pair of motors totaling 637hp. Our test EV didn’t have the strongest regenerative braking in Sport mode, and I couldn’t test other modes in my limited time. The ride quality is considerably smoother than a Model Y, however, perhaps due to its curb weight of 5,313 pounds, fully 1,000 pounds more than the Tesla.

Given recent concerns over fully electronic door handles, it’s worth noting those of the 7X slide out from a flush position. To get them to do so, you first have to locate and push an adjacent round button. I found the seats comfortable for my particular build, though the interior was more conventional and “German,” with largely black trim — versus the new Model Y’s stripped-down, almost Scandinavian approach. More than any other vehicle on the lot, the Zeekr 7X was the one reporters and Geely execs viewed as a possible US entry. The key issue would be price. In China it sells for $32,000; the price in Mexico is roughly 97,000 pesos, or about $55,000.

Giovanni Lanfranchi, CEO of Zeekr Technology Europe, is based in Gothenburg, Sweden, where Volvo has been based for almost 100 years. Until a restructuring last year, Volvo owned 30 percent shares of both Zeekr and Lynk & Co. Major changes followed the September 2024 Taizhou Declaration from Geely founder and chairman Li Shufu. The single-page document demanded that all Geely R&D activities focus on developing every new vehicle from shared components, not just vehicle platforms but also software architectures and application layers.

Lanfranchi said since then, he has been “shocked” at the speed of what became “profound, radical change” in Geely’s R&D groups in Gothenburg and Frankfurt, which work side by side with their counterparts in China.

Just 16 months after the declaration, each brand already has a new vehicle on an entirely common architecture. The Geely M9, Lynk & Co 900, and Zeekr 9X shown at CES are all built on the SEA-S 900V long-range plug-in hybrid platform announced in July. They share 90 percent of their components and software, Lanfranchi said — whereas earlier Zeekr models used platforms developed by its own R&D group just for its own models.

Geely now plans to launch new vehicles in China and Europe simultaneously, rather than delaying up to a year while a Chinese-designed vehicle is adapted to conditions in other markets.

Earlier this year, Trump dropped a bombshell. He’d be entirely fine with Chinese automakers selling in the US, he told the Detroit Economic Club — as long as they open plants to build them in this country.

Geely can probably do so more easily and faster than any other Chinese maker. The plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina, presently only builds Volvo and Polestar vehicles. But with common platforms and identical underlying software architectures, and Volvo and Polestar migrating onto them, Lanfranchi sees “no reason not to” build group vehicles in the Volvo factory. He stressed that such a move was not his to make, and no decision had been announced. But in the end, he mused, “I think it may happen.”

Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights and an expert on China’s auto industry, called Geely’s US entry “absolutely possible, likely, and probable.” The company has long felt, he said, that the US would be “its destiny.”

Dunne noted that Chinese EVs in the UK, led by BYD and MG, are roughly 15 percent cheaper than Japanese and Korean models. “The Chinese don’t have to be scary cheap,” he said. “They just need to be priced low enough to make you pause — then take a closer look.”

That’s exactly how German, Japanese, and then Korean makers built their businesses, along with features domestic cars didn’t offer, from smaller cars to bulletproof reliability to long warranties. Those countries, of course, are allies of the US — China is not.