U.S. shoppers remain effectively barred from buying electric vehicles built in China because of steep tariffs and security restrictions aimed at Chinese technology. At the same time, thousands of the same vehicles have been arriving at American ports and being prepared for service on public roads by an autonomous ride‑hailing company. The vans in question are the Zeekr CM1e, which the company operating them has given the name Ojai. The CM1e is produced by a unit of a major Chinese automaker; the shipments into the country have been large enough to draw attention from trade observers and transportation regulators.
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U.S. Customs bills of lading data, assembled by a trade research group, show that since 2024 more than 3,200 of these vans have passed through the Port of Los Angeles, with over 2,600 arriving so far this year. The import paperwork does not identify the autonomous ride company by name, but the Chinese maker has no other known U.S. partner, making the self‑driving operator the presumptive recipient of the vehicles. The scale of the inflow has surprised some industry watchers because the vans began appearing in public operation only recently and in numbers that exceeded early expectations.
Part of the surprise stems from the high tariff imposed on passenger electric vehicles built in China. The current tariff rate is 127.5 percent. At the van’s stated price point in China—about $39,000—the tariff alone would push the landed cost of each vehicle toward $89,000 before any modifications. On top of that, the autonomous driving hardware that the ride operator fits to the vans is itself a significant expense; company materials and industry estimates indicate that the sensor suite and associated computing gear likely add more than $10,000 per vehicle. That arithmetic helps explain why the appearance of the periwinkle‑colored vans on city streets caught many by surprise.
The autonomous company has confirmed that it is actively operating more than 300 of the vans—referred to as Ojais—across its early access service areas in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. The business is already functioning in a total of 11 cities, and the Ojai is being positioned as a central element in the operator’s plan to expand into dozens more locations. The overall fleet for the company stood at roughly 3,900 vehicles last month; that total has been dominated until now by a different model that is no longer in production. The company is also rolling out modified vehicles produced in the United States and expects those vehicles to enter service as part of a broader mixed fleet strategy.
To meet U.S. security requirements aimed at limiting certain foreign hardware and data collection, the imported vans arrive without the active sensors and computing systems that would permit autonomous operation. Those components and the company’s own software are developed domestically and then installed at a conversion facility in Mesa, Arizona. “The technology that collects data and makes our vehicles autonomous—the software, sensors, and computing systems—is developed in the US. Waymo installs the autonomous driving technology on stripped‑down, disconnected OEM‑provided vehicles in our Arizona manufacturing facility,” the company’s spokeswoman said. That process of importing a vehicle shell and integrating U.S. systems predates the current tariff regime by several years and traces back to an arrangement begun in late 2021 when the vehicle’s design work included contributions in Europe.
Beyond the economic and regulatory dimensions, the vans themselves offer practical advantages for a passenger service. The interior layout includes sliding doors on both sides, a flat floor and more cabin space than some older models previously used by the company, which can make entering and exiting easier for riders. The Ojai rollout also arrives with the operator’s sixth‑generation autonomous hardware, which the company says reduces per‑vehicle hardware costs by roughly half compared with the prior generation. Recent software enhancements include integration of a conversational assistant that allows riders to manage climate controls or request stops by voice, a feature added to the fleet in the weeks before the latest expansion.
The move puts the company in a more competitive posture as other firms pursue their own autonomous vehicle strategies. One competitor recently received regulatory clearance to operate a purpose‑built robotaxi without traditional controls in a major U.S. city, and other manufacturers are developing vehicles specifically for autonomous services. Meanwhile, the operator of the imported vans is reporting growing rider demand: weekly paid trips have topped half a million, and the company has set an internal target of reaching one million paid rides per week by year’s end. The imports, the Arizona conversion line and the ongoing deployment across multiple metropolitan areas together reflect a rapid push to scale autonomous ride services using a mix of vehicle sources and domestically installed autonomy systems.
A Waymo autonomous minivan driving on a public street in California; Waymo is importing thousands of such self‑driving vehicles into the U.S. fleet.
Logistical records make clear that tens of thousands of dollars in tariffs and conversion costs do not necessarily prevent large‑scale imports when a company views a particular vehicle as central to its expansion plans. The imported vans were styled with international partners before the conversion arrangement was established, and the early commitment to that product line appears to be paying dividends as the operator moves to scale its service. The company continues to combine vehicles it modifies in the United States with those converted from imported shells as it grows operations across American cities.
MoffettNathanson analysts estimate roughly 300 Ojai vans arriving monthly. They note Geely likely offers heavy discounts and may absorb portions of the tariff due to China's EV overcapacity, while re-engineering Waymo's stack for another platform would cost around $100,000 per vehicle.
Waymo has said its Mesa, Arizona facility is a joint effort with Magna International and is being scaled "toward a capacity of tens of thousands of units per year" to integrate the sixth‑generation Waymo Driver onto new vehicle platforms.
Waymo’s sixth‑generation sensor suite being fitted to the Ojai includes 13 cameras, six radar units and four LiDAR sensors (plus external audio receivers), a configuration the company says was designed to improve all‑weather perception while cutting per‑vehicle hardware cost.
In a July 8, 2026 update Waymo reported its safety analysis now covers more than 220 million fully autonomous miles through March 31, 2026, and said the Waymo Driver was involved in about 94% fewer crashes causing serious or fatal injuries than human drivers in the same areas.
Waymo has also begun autonomously driving Hyundai IONIQ 5 vehicles with a specialist present as part of validating the sixth‑generation Driver on U.S.‑built platforms ahead of broader deployment.