This statement doesn't make a lot of sense. 40-50% of vehicles are foreign-made already[1]. I would strongly wager it's vastly more likely that these Chinese vehicles do not meet US safety standards - which are quite high.

[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-pr...

Much higher standards than European ones? Because the cars do sell there as well.

Yes. The EU focuses on safety of pedestrians, and the US focuses on safety of occupants. That's not to say a vehicle cannot do both well (see the many European vehicles sold in the US), but that is to say Chinese vehicles may not meet the US standards. The US has a lot of vehicle regulations that significantly differ from the EU market.

Do you mind providing sources for that?

Because, as a EU citizen, I have never in my life seen any tests that carmarkers are advertising with that focus on pedestrians. I am regularly seeing tests that focus on occupants though, e.g. the Euro NCAP. But I am by no means an expert.

It would be hard to focus on pedestrian safety from a carmaker standpoint except for adding software features that recognize people in front of you and auto-brake or smth, which definitely is not the focus of the tests here. It may be a requirement though. The more I think about it, the more sure I am that you just made this up, sorry.

Pedestrian impact design has been a thing in the European market for a while. One example: the pop-up hood that detects a pedestrian impact, it's a pyrotechnic device that makes the hood pop up to give more of a cushion for the pedestrian to land on. Also I think pedestrian safety is one reason modern BMWs and Audis have the timing chains (very annoyingly for maintenance) fitted at the back of the engine, to give more space for pedestrian impact. Stuff like that. Also the automated emergency braking systems, more recently.

https://www.euroncap.com/en/car-safety/the-ratings-explained...

> Yes. The EU focuses on safety of pedestrians, and the US focuses on safety of occupants.

How can a car focus on the safety of pedestrian? Does it detect a pedestrian and fly away like a drone?

The tests include tests for the safety of the people hit by the car vs just for people inside the car.

That's not true, it's just that the Chinese NCAP is modeled after the EU one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-NCAP

The EU focuses on both aspects of safety.

You can look at the Euro NCAP ratings for the 2023 BYD Seal, for example: https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/byd/seal/50012. They break down the rating based on safety for adult occupants, child occupants and pedestrians. These ratings are based on many different crash tests.

Chinese companies make cars with 5-star European crash ratings. They are perfectly capable of meeting US safety standards.

>I would strongly wager it's vastly more likely that these Chinese vehicles do not meet US safety standards

This was correct a few years years ago.

It's actually the opposite nowadays, most of these cars are safer than the typical 2.5L 4 cylinder American car. Both the EU and Australia has been completely flooded with these cars, to an extent that you'd have to see it to believe it.