Why China is about to flood Australia with electric vehicles - with a dozen new brands expected in the next two years

Chinese electric carmakers are tipped to flood Australia with cheap imports as the Americans and Europeans embark on a trade war to protect their local vehicle manufacturers.

A dozen new Chinese car brands are expected in Australia during the next two years - a situation described as 'unprecedented' that will 'massively change the market'.

Former Labor industry minister Kim Carr predicts trade protectionism in the U.S. and the European Union will see China increasingly sell EVs for under $40,000 in Australia.

Australia has had a free trade agreement with China since 2015, which means cars from our biggest trading partner are sold to Aussie motorists with zero import tariffs or taxes. 

Australians are now able to buy cheap Chinese EVs, including the BYD Dolphin for $36,890, the MG4 from $39,990 and the GWM Ora from $35,990.

'I have no doubt there will be cheaper Chinese vehicles,' Mr Carr told Daily Mail Australia.

'The international manufacturers were dropping vehicles here - a testing ground here for advanced-income economies.

'The U.S. will embark on a trade war with the Chinese to protect their American automotive industry; the Germans will pursue measures to seek to preserve the German automotive industry; the French has still got a very strong industry.

'There is very little virtue when it comes to the international trading relations around manufactured goods.'

Chinese-made cars already command 80 per cent of Australia's EV market, with government subsidies from the Chinese Communist Party government tipped to spark a trade war with the U.S. and Europe - leading to higher import tariffs on Chinese goods in those markets.

This would see more Chinese EVs instead sold in Australia, on top of the BYD Atto 3, MG ZS and Chinese-made versions of the popular American-designed Tesla Model 3 and Model Y.

Motoring expert Toby Hagon, the editor of EV Central, said a dozen Chinese car brands were expected to arrive in Australia during the next two years - including Zeekr, XPeng Motors, Geely which owns Volvo and Polestar, Lynk and Co, Leapmotor, Jaecoo, Changan and Nio.

'Not all of these are confirmed - they're either expected or have said their intention to come to Australia,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'The imminent onslaught of Chinese-made electric cars and hybrids but predominately electric cars is unprecedented in the next few years.

'It looks like we're going to have a dozen-odd new brands coming into the country; so it's going to potentially massively change the market.

'Australia's a very open market in terms of the car market; Europe and American, for example, are talking of putting trade sanctions on Chinese-made vehicles to try and protect their own carmakers.' 

Mr Carr predicted Aussie motorists would increasingly embrace Chinese-made cars, like they did with Japanese cars in the 1970s and Korean cars in the 1990s.

'We saw a similar pattern with the Japanese vehicles - at first people were resistant to Japanese and Korean vehicles only to find that in time, they were a high-quality product,' he said.

'So, the Chinese quality has improved dramatically and it will improve still further - that's when you'll start to see some serious competition.

'People don't want to spend $40,000 on a motor vehicle and not be confident.' 

Chinese carmakers are also set to bring even more EVs and petrol-electric hybrids to Australia with a BYD Shark plug-in hybrid ute planned for later this year to take on the Australian-designed but Thai-built Ford Ranger and the Toyota HiLux.

BYD, which has overtaken Tesla to be the world's biggest EV producer, is also bringing a Sealion 6 plug-in hybrid SUV to Australia. 

Battery-electric vehicles had an 8.1 per cent market share in May compared with 15.8 per cent for petrol-electric hybrids and plug-in hybrids, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data showed. 

'Tesla bring their cars in from China, BMW brings an electric car in from China, Kia's about to import and electric car from China and then you've got the Chinese brands,' Mr Hagon said.

'China's already dominating and it looks like they're going to build on that.'