The Canadian auto market officially opened to Chinese-made electric vehicles on March 1. But that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to drive a BYD or a Chery EV on Canadian streets anytime soon.

Chances are more familiar brands will hit Canada first, according to industry watchers.

“If it’s a brand that is already imported to Canada, like a Polestar, a Volvo or a Tesla, then Chinese EVs are already coming,” said Peter Frise, a professor of mechanical and automotive engineering at the University of Windsor.

“If people are interested in one of the really low-cost EVs, or a brand that is not currently imported to Canada, then the process would take longer,” he explained.

Chinese electric vehicles — including marquee brands like BYD, Chery and Geely — tend to sell at a lower retail price due to cheaper materials, low labour costs and industry subsidies from the Chinese government.

However, non-Chinese brands like Volvo, Polestar and Tesla also manufacture in China, and could potentially benefit from the EV deal announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney in January.

“Chinese companies have a great deal of overcapacity for manufacturing. So they can make something like 40 million cars a year and they only sell about 20,000 or 25,000 within their own country,” said Frise.

Those companies need to export to other countries to keep their factories busy. But with a limit of 49,000 Chinese-made EVs allowed into the Canadian market at a 6.1 per cent tariff rate, the Chinese auto industry will be strategic in choosing which models to export, according to Frise.

“If they can only export a certain number of vehicles per year to Canada, are they going to want to export that number of less expensive, lower profit vehicles, or that number of expensive, higher profit vehicles? They’ll go for the higher profit vehicles.”

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Addisu Lashitew, an associate professor of strategic management at McMaster University, told CBC News in an email that Teslas, Polestars and Volvos could arrive as soon as this month or next. He agreed that the permitting process will take longer for Chinese brands.

“Still, Canada may have an incentive to streamline these procedures in order to reduce the risk of reciprocal delays by China in restoring canola market access,” he explained.

“On that basis, it is plausible that most of the 24,500 EV imports scheduled for the March to August period will consist of existing models from Tesla, Volvo, and Polestar, while newer Chinese brands may become more visible from the summer onward.”

How the approval process works

During previous correspondence with CBC News, Transport Canada said that any vehicles made in China and intended for sale in Canada have to comply with the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

Once they are compliant with those regulations, the automakers can register with Transport Canada’s Appendix G Pre-clearance Program, a database of foreign manufacturers.

The purpose of that program is to make border processes “more efficient for Canadian commercial importers by registering foreign manufacturers that certify vehicles as compliant with Canadian regulatory requirements,” according to Transport Canada.

That assessment includes an inspection of lighting, brakes, windshield wipers and other auto parts, said Frise, but that testing can take up to a few weeks or months. BYD is the only Chinese EV that has that clearance due to previous applications to sell taxis and buses in the Canadian market; it’s not clear how that affects future imports.

CBC News reached out to Transport Canada to ask about the approval timeline for imported vehicles, and was referred to Global Affairs, which did not answer by deadline.

Likewise, CBC reached out to several Chinese auto manufacturers, including Chery and Xiaomi, to ask whether they had submitted applications for approval. None of the companies responded by deadline.

And while Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Polestar said that the company is “currently evaluating the ongoing developments.”