Biden urged to ban China-made electric vehicles

President Joe Biden has been urged to ban imports of Chinese-made electric cars to the US.

The chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown, wrote "Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry".

His comments are the strongest yet by any US lawmaker on the issue, while others have called for steep tariffs to keep Chinese electric vehicles (EV) out of the country.

In February, the White House said the US was opening an investigation into whether Chinese cars pose a national security risk, reports BBC.

"We cannot allow China to bring its government-backed cheating to the American auto industry", Senator Brown said in a video on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Senator Brown, who is a Democrat from the the car-producing state of Ohio, is seeking to win a fourth term in office in November's election.

The White House did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

In February, President Biden said that China's policies "could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security" and that he would "not let that happen on my watch."

Washington could impose restrictions over concerns that the technology in Chinese-made cars could "collect large amounts of sensitive data on their drivers and passengers", the White House said.

It warned cars that are connected to the internet "regularly use their cameras and sensors to record detailed information on US infrastructure; interact directly with critical infrastructure; and can be piloted or disabled remotely".

China is the world's largest producer of cars and vying with Japan to be the biggest exporter of vehicles.