Colleague Jack Burnham explains why it is that Commerce Department of the U.S. made an exception for Volvo made by Gile,

and not for other Gile products all China made, especially the EVs.

What's the difference between a B.Y.D. and a Volvo.

Not much. Here's Jack to explain.

And so the Commerce Department recognized the danger of

connected automobiles, so connected vehicles, so vehicles that collect data and transmit it back

to the manufacturer. The Commerce Department recognized that those types of vehicles produced by

China or Russia really did pose a national security risk

due to the potential espionage and sabotage concerns.

And so as a result, they looked to phase those vehicles out starting in model year 2027.

And so this would have banned a company like BYD or a Russian auto maker from selling in the United States.

In this particular case, Volvo is being treated differently, in large part because it's unclear,

but likely because Volvo has invested to a significant degree in moving its manufacturing to the

United States. Volvo has a plant across, plants across the American South. And so as a result,

other than the B.Y.D in, that is exporting a finished product into the United

States, Volvo, although it's majority owned by a Chinese company, does have a growing

market presence and a manufacturing presence in the United States, which I think did complicate

the Commerce Department's thinking around this, as well as Volvo's commitment to put up safeguards,

albeit unclear what those safeguards are, to prevent the data that's collected by Volvo's

vehicles for being transited both to Gile or to China.

Yeah.