Yet another Hacker News

Mexico is a showroom for electric vehicles you can't buy in the U.S.

66 points bookofjoe 1 hour ago 36 comments

bookofjoe 1 hour ago | parent

https://wapo.st/4dZMFUo

allears 46 minutes ago | parent

This link still runs into a subscription paywall, as do most of your recent posts.

tpoindex 3 minutes ago | parent

Searching for the article title usually finds some non-paywalled alternate sources, eg:

https://duckduckgo.com/&q=i+went+to+mexico+to+test+drive+the...

pelagicAustral 33 minutes ago | parent

How's Elon gonna sell his shitbox cars if the government doesnt step in? Other than to techbros, that is.

skullone 23 minutes ago | parent

I tried to like Teslas, but I find them incredibly cheap and uncomfortable. The road noise is worse than a 27 year old Subaru, which I found baffling since there's not even an engine, and I thought they were supposed to be aerodynamic and smooth. But no, they're harsh and always feel like you're driving on a noisy worn out road. What's the appeal of Teslas? For the price premium of them, what do you actually get?

whall6 21 minutes ago | parent

The appeal is that it will drive you itself.

runtime_terror 12 minutes ago | parent

Into the back of a parked semi truck

jeffbee 20 minutes ago | parent

There are relatively few ways to mask the fact that a car weighs 2000kg. One of the non-ways of solving that problem is to put ultra-low-profile tires on huge wheels to make it look cool online and ride like shit.

NewJazz 13 minutes ago | parent

Yeah I feel like the low profile tire trend is terrible in a lot of ways. Tire wear, resistance to flats, mileage, and road noise immediately come to mind.

apercu 13 minutes ago | parent

I found the user experience terrible as well - just trying to turn on the wipers or change the heat required trying to remember where they were in nested menus on a touchscreen while driving at 100kmh on the 401.

iainmerrick 5 minutes ago | parent

I'm no fan of Teslas but they do still have one distinguishing feature over other EVs: last I checked, they were still by far the most efficient, in terms of kWh per km. It's as if nobody else even bothers streamlining their cars, they're too busy making chunky SUVs with massive grilles.

It's weird that for petrol cars, most people are really concerned with miles-per-gallon (maybe not so much in the US, until recently), yet for EVs all anyone seems to care about is range. I guess electricity is cheap enough that efficiency doesn't really matter, except when it gives you more range?

233mhz 2 minutes ago | parent

When I sat in the back of a model 3 I thought it was a joke at first, I've never sat so low in a car, my knees were above my hips, comfort was subpar.

UI_at_80x24 33 minutes ago | parent

I noticed that when I was there. I was pleasantly surprised to see as many BYD as I did.

That infact made me consider BYD even more seriously. Being able to see the car in person is far more impressive the a YouTube video.

rylando 15 minutes ago | parent

I was really impressed with the BYD’s I rode in for uber while in Mexico

robotnikman 10 minutes ago | parent

I went there recently for a friends wedding, and about half the Uber's we took were driving Chinese EV's

mzajc 31 minutes ago | parent

https://archive.ph/sGqBh

allears 20 minutes ago | parent

Thanks! That worked fine.

gourneau 28 minutes ago | parent

Is there any reasonable cost-effective way to import these into the USA? Or is that path blocked due to regulatory safety things?

alistairSH 16 minutes ago | parent

No, between safety and emissions, a normal person effectively have to wait out the 25 year as spelled out in the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988. Once you hit that, it's relatively straightforward to import the car (straightforward if you know how to do it, there are importers who specialize in this market).

There are some small exceptions for show cars (as is, never used on public roads) and similar things, but they all limit/prohibit use on public roads.

cosmojg 6 minutes ago | parent

1. Buy a BYD in Mexico.

2. Buy a scrapped Tesla in the US.

3. Rebadge the BYD with the Tesla's logos.

4. Bury the Tesla in your yard.

5. Register the rebadged BYD with the Tesla's VIN, slap some plates on it, and drive.

twobitshifter 2 minutes ago | parent

there are limitations, a non resident can get a car in for a year, and if it’s plated in Mexico a resident might get a similar permit.

petcat 17 minutes ago | parent

USA bans the onboard Chinese automotive software for national security reasons, effectively banning Chinese cars.

For all the talk about data and technology sovereignty in Europe about USA tech, you would think they would take that more seriously too. Instead Europe is flooded with underpriced Chinese cars that they have no control over.

advisedwang 12 minutes ago | parent

Are there actual national security concerns though? Or is that just an excuse for protectionism? I suspect the latter, and in europe politicians may make the calculation that cheap cars > car manufaturing jobs.

petcat 10 minutes ago | parent

Ask Europe if they think there are "actual national security concerns" about them being so heavily reliant on USA tech companies and services.

Munksgaard 2 minutes ago | parent

China isn't threatening to invade European countries.

lawn 1 minute ago | parent

At this point US is a bigger security concern than China.

tocs3 1 minute ago | parent

I think there are legitimate safety and national security concerns. I also think restrictions are imposed for protectionism / political / monetary reasons. We are living in a world where the people making the decisions wait until there is enough personal gain to act in one direction or another.

LunaSea 11 minutes ago | parent

Europe doesn't ban American on-board software so why would they ban Chinese ones?

lukan 3 minutes ago | parent

There are limits in place and about to be tightened, but I assume the bigger worry are the european car manufacturers.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/12/eu-deal-...

And personally I trust a Tesla as much as chinese car. But a VW one only slightly more.

brcmthrowaway 10 minutes ago | parent

OT but I'm in the market for a hybrid compact SUV.. anything good? Kia?

lysace 2 minutes ago | parent

I was curious, so I looked it up: 75% of electricity generation in Mexico comes from fossil fuels, mostly gas.

https://www.iea.org/countries/mexico/electricity

freeone3000 2 minutes ago | parent

Meaning electric cars at minimum 25% cleaner than an internal combustion vehicle.

lanthissa 1 minute ago | parent

lumping those all together is missing half the point, ng in at least in the us where its a by product of oil extraction is a huge step up from coal/oil and will be with us for a very long time

haunter 2 minutes ago | parent

My only “concern” about chinese cars (and I don’t mean chinese as in Volvo) that I am not sure you will get parts and service in 10 or 15 years. More than 500 unique models were released in the first 6 months of 2026 alone [0]. It’s like the wild west of Android phones 15 years ago. Brands you never heared about, never updated Android versions etc

0, https://www.carscoops.com/2026/08/chinese-automakers-lauchin...