In This Article:
Just days before President-elect Donald Trump enters the White House, the Biden administration finalized new rules for cracking down on Chinese- and Russian-made tech in connected cars, including cars made in those countries.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), along with the Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services (OICTS), found that certain technologies that appear in connected car features, such as internet connectivity integrated into a car’s automated driving systems and similar vehicle assist features, “present an undue and unacceptable risk to US national security,” the BIS said in a statement.
The new rule prohibits the sale or importation of specific pieces of hardware, as well as software for these systems, from companies with a “sufficient nexus” of connection to China or Russia.
The software-related prohibitions will take effect for model year 2027, and the hardware-related prohibitions will take effect for model year 2030, or Jan. 1, 2029, for units without a model year, OICTS said. Prohibitions on the sale of connected vehicles by manufacturers with a sufficient nexus to the PRC or Russia, even if manufactured in the United States, take effect for model year 2027.
“Connected vehicles yield many benefits, but software and hardware sources from the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and other countries of concern pose grave national security risks,” said national security adviser Jake Sullivan in a statement. “Today, we are taking strong action to protect Americans against these national security risks by safeguarding our critical infrastructure and automotive supply chain.”
OICTS said it worked with automotive companies, suppliers, and other stakeholders to create the new rules beginning last March, when OICTS proposed the rule.
The rules also effectively ban Chinese- and Russian-made cars that incorporate the technologies in question. This ban comes after the White House quadrupled tariffs on some Chinese EVs to over 100%.
Automakers have been trying to push the timelines out as long as possible, as the companies need time to adjust their supply chains to remove hardware and software from these systems.
GM and Ford actually build vehicles in China (the Buick Envision and Lincoln Nautilus, respectively), which will be impacted by the rulemaking. Volvo also makes the S90 sedan in China, as well as sister brand Polestar with the Polestar 2 EV sedan.
Nonetheless, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI) trade group, which represents a number of automakers, said the new rules and their timing are fair.