Overview
- The Alliance for Automotive Innovation formally sent a letter to House and Senate leaders asking for a permanent ban on the sale, import and manufacture of Chinese connected vehicles, hardware and software in the United States.
- Alliance CEO John Bozzella framed the request as a national security issue, saying connected systems in these cars could collect, process and transmit sensitive vehicle and consumer data to the Chinese Communist Party.
- Bozzella acknowledged the specific data-exfiltration harms the letter warns about have not been documented in the United States, and argued the speed of Chinese expansion makes preemptive action warranted.
- The Alliance represents U.S. automakers and key suppliers and cites the sector’s support for roughly 11 million jobs and more than 5 percent of U.S. economic output as part of its case against subsidized Chinese exports.
- The request is publicly on record but congressional action is not scheduled, leaving the outcome dependent on legislative timing and whether lawmakers accept the security rationale as a bipartisan path forward.