While the US and EU are putting up barriers to Chinese cars, Australians are buying them at record levels

Australia's roads have long been dominated by the auto giants of Japan, Germany and the United States but China is fast earning its spot in the garage of glory.

This year, vehicles from China became the third most popular choice for new car sales in Australia, knocking South Korea — the home of Kia and Hyundai — down to fourth place, and rapidly gaining ground on manufacturing leaders Thailand and .
The rise of Chinese cars in Australia has been meteoric, jumping from 4,154 sales in 2014 to 193,433 last year.

And it's likely to keep growing, with models from Chinese giants Guangzhou Automobile Group and Geely Auto set to roll onto Australian roads next year.

But while Australians are fast falling in love with Chinese cars, some other Western nations are trying to break up.

The success of China's auto industry has been met with hostility in the US, with the White House last month quadrupling the border tax on Chinese electric vehicles (EV) from 25 per cent to 100 per cent.

The tariff is an unabashed attempt to protect America's auto industry from Chinese competition, with President Joe Biden also introducing punitive measures against other Chinese imports including computer chips, batteries and steel.

"They're flooding the market," Mr Biden said.

"It's not competing, it's cheating."

Europe, which has its own billion-dollar auto industry to consider, is also wary of Chinese success.

In September, the European Commission started investigating whether it should impose its tariffs with an announcement expected in early June.

President Ursula von der Leyen said global markets were being "flooded with cheaper electric cars" with prices "kept.

Ref: While the US and EU are putting up barriers to Chinese cars, Australians are buying them at record levels (abc)