American carmakers are pushing Congress to shut Chinese vehicles out of the US market entirely, which is good for Detroit but bad for buyers hoping for cheap cars.

• The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the trade group for US carmakers, wants a permanent ban on selling, importing, or building Chinese connected cars, including their software.
• The stated worry is spying: these cars collect and send driver and vehicle data, and could send it back to the Chinese government.
• The bigger fear is money — China builds cars so cheaply it can flood a market and wipe out local carmakers.
• A Canadian trade deal is the back door: tariffs on Chinese EVs there fall from 100% to 6%, letting Geely ship tens of thousands of cars into North America each year.
• China is already taking market share in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and South America.

Outlook: Expect Congress to move toward tighter restrictions on Chinese cars, keeping cheap EVs out of American showrooms.