9:00 am, March 3, 2025
Motorway boss James Wilson has backed controversial calls for the UK to impose tariffs on Chinese carmakers in order to protect the UK’s automotive industry.
At present, the UK does not impose any tariffs on cars imported from China, leading to the enormous growth of the likes of BYD, GWM and Jaecoo over recent years.
However, there are fears about what the influx could mean for the British carmaking industry, which is struggling to keep up with its state-backed Chinese rivals.
In the US, Chinese imports are currently subject to enormous tariffs of over 100%, while the EU imposes charges of up to 35%.
The latter has proved incredibly controversial, with China lodging an official complaint with the World Trade Organisation over the issue last year.
Officials in Beijing say that such charges are ‘an abuse of trade remedies’ but there remain growing calls for similar tariffs to be introduced in the UK.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Car Dealer Podcast, Motorway COO, Wilson, who will be speaking at Car Dealer Live 2025, says that he ‘strongly believes’ that such charges should be introduced.
He told hosts James Batchelor and Jon Reay: ‘I was out at NADA back in January and I was listening to a talk about Chinese manufacturers.
‘I hadn’t quite dawned on me the fact that there are literally no Chinese cars in the US because of these tariffs.
‘The thrust of this talk I was listening to was go to Mexico and check out BYD dealerships there to understand what these cars are really like because literally there are none in the US, which is not a surprise.
‘Tariffs there are what, 130%? We don’t have any tariffs on Chinese cars at the moment in the UK. There’s 30% in Europe and it’s going to be interesting to see how all of this plays out over time.
‘I strongly believe unless we put the tariffs on Chinese vehicles, I think we’ll see a massive shift in already seeing it towards Chinese vehicles because there’s a whole segment of customers that are less invested in some of the traditional brands and they’re very open to go in with those cars and those vehicles are very good quality as well.’
He added: ‘I think it will be very interesting to see how it plays out and as I say, how the government reacts – or doesn’t react to that – in light of all the other tariffs that are going on in the US and Europe.’
‘Hard to be all in’
Speaking on the podcast, Wilson also gave his view on how the government should look to incentivise EV take-up, ahead of the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel cars.
The former Amazon executive says that Labour needs to push both supply and demand for electric cars, if it is to meet its own EV targets.
He added that current uncertainty around electric stock is making it difficult for dealers to go ‘all in’ when it comes to electrification.
‘There’s a high degree of uncertainty around what’s going to happen right from a consumer perspective,’ he said.
‘That, I think makes it hard to be all in. I think we need to see more government support to drive demand more generally.
‘We have talked about this in the past and that is something that, if we don’t see coming through, I think will make it challenging to hit the goals that the government has set.
‘I’m a strong advocate for them supporting consumers, supporting the demand side, and not just pushing the supply side of the market. You have to do both.’
The Car Dealer Podcast, sponsored by Carwow, sees an industry guest join our hosts to discuss the motor trade’s biggest headlines of every week.
A full list of the stories discussed on this week’s episode can be found here.
You can listen to all episodes of the Car Dealer Podcast on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
