Export to buckets. That was China’s goal in 2025 towards Mexico. Alerted by the enormous tariffs that the country was going to impose, as it has been, Chinese manufacturers have done everything possible to be faster than the Government. Now, exporting a car to Mexico from China is unfeasible.
But the Chinese cars arrived months ago.
taxes. Was a 20% tariff on Chinese cars too little? Mexico believes so and that is why, since January 2026, it has been applying a new 50% tariff on imports of products arriving from countries with which it does not have trade agreements. Come on, Chinese cars now have to pay 50% tariffs to enter Mexico.
The measure, explained in Motorpasión Mexico It has a bit of a protectionist flavor compared to China or India (the latter country has Mexico as the third country to which it sends the most cars). But, above all, it has a lot of nod to the United States, with whom Mexico has a special trade agreement that has been at risk since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
when you go. I will tell an anecdote from the writing of WorldOfSoftware. In our Slack we have a reaction from Chenoa to point out to someone that we were already contemplating writing on a topic that he now proposes to us again. You know: “when you go…”.
And that is what has happened to Mexico with China. Manufacturers, alarmed by the possibility of tariffs being raised in their country of origin (as has finally happened) began to send all the cars they could to Mexico.
The result: 625,187 cars exported to Mexico in one year.
They have done “a Chenoa” to Mexico.
one in three. To understand the magnitude of exports, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association, Mexico is the country to which China exported the most cars in 2025. These more than 625,000 vehicles surpassed those purchased by Russia (582,738 units), which has serious difficulties in obtaining vehicles from abroad. The United Arab Emirates, with 571,937 cars imported from China, was the third country that received the most cars.
The figure is enormous. And in Mexico around 1.5 million cars are bought a year. That is, if in 2026 each and every one of the cars exported by China were sold, in 2025 we would be talking about one in every three sales in the country being from Chinese manufacturers.
How many are available? Those exports, of course, leave a pool of cheap cars in stock so the impact of Chinese cars on the market will continue to be felt for some time. It must be taken into account that it is estimated that China had already taken a 15% market share.
The storage of these cars, everything indicates, guarantees that Chinese brands continue selling at the same rate throughout the year. They point out in Motorpasión Mexico In 2025, it is estimated that Mexicans will Buy just over 400,000 cars of Chinese origin. The only question is how many of them belong to the more than 630,000 cars imported last year and how much is the stock since a part of them must have been imported into the country in 2024.
Foto | aboodi vesakaran y BYD
In WorldOfSoftware | Japan has been charging a 0% tariff on foreign cars for half a century. It will be very difficult for you to find one on the street.
