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by NotYourLawyer 459 days ago
You can’t buy them in the US though. They might as well not exist.
3 comments

For BYD there is a kind of backdoor.

You could move to Nuevo Laredo in Mexico, which is on the US/Mexico border, and buy a Mexican BYD. Register it in Mexico and get a Mexican driver's license.

Right on the other side of the border is Laredo, Texas, making it easy to come to the US for most things you want to do outside of your home if you don't want to do them in Mexico.

Google is telling me that crossing the border into the US at Laredo is usually pretty quick and easy for a US citizen.

Maybe VW will also bring its cheap EVs to Mexico?

This isn't a backdoor, just moving to a country where they are sold¿
It's sort of a backdoor, because while you would be living in Mexico in the sense that Mexico is where your apartment is, that apartment could be less then a mile from a border crossing so you could easily do most things in the US and just go back to Mexico every night to sleep.

If the internet is to be believed they would not need a Temporary Import Permit when visiting the US with the Mexican car because they are a US citizen. They would be able to stay with the car for up to a year in the US, so even if they wanted to take a vacation or road trip to someplace other than Laredo, TX that should be OK.

PS: there's an interesting limitation of Google maps I just noticed. If I've got a view that shows both the US and Mexico Laredos and do a search, I only get results on the US side. I have to scroll so that most of the view is the Mexico side before it will show anything.

Might as well move to China. This is not useful.
Because as we all know the other 7.9B people on the planet never drive. Cars are clearly a uniquely American concept.
Well you can't buy them in Europe either. They are planning to launch a €20k model this year, currently the cheapest car BYD offers seems to be around €30k.
You can't buy something which was just announced. Shocker.

Regardless of the availability of this specific model, the parent comment still claimed that a car must be sold in the United States or it "might as well not exist".

The thread is about the $9700 model which is not available in Europe nor was its availability announced publicly.
What is it with Americans these days?
I’m kidding. Slightly.