• IShowSpeed is a 20-year-old YouTube streamer with more than 38 million subscribers.
• He is currently in China, livestreaming his experience, including his time with cars like the Yangwang U9 and Xiaomi SU7 Ultra.
• He claimed to want to buy the U9, but was disappointed that he couldn’t import it back to the U.S.

It’s interesting to watch just how fast the sentiment toward China has turned within the past few months. Perhaps it started with the ever-looming TikTok ban, only to reach a fever pitch when kids semi-ironically adopted Chinese social media Xiaohongshu and learned more about China. That meant learning about Chinese cars, too; it wasn’t hard to find a Gen-Zer on social media bemoaning the fact that we can’t get a $10,000 BYD Seagull.

Well, if you thought those sentiments would subside in 2025, think again. Popular streamer and internet personality IShowSpeed has been in China for the past couple of weeks. Just a few days ago, he tried to buy a Yangwang U9, only to be disappointed when he learned that he couldn’t take it home and put it on American roads. If you’re not familiar, Yangwang is the upscale brand of EV Goliath BYD.

 

Generally, we wouldn’t report on any streamer or YouTube personality getting impressed by Chinese cars. But IShowSpeed is one of the biggest streamers on YouTube, with more than 38 million subscribers. He started out as a gaming streamer, but now he’s famous for his ostentatious personality and live streams in global locations.

Earlier that week he had got some passenger seat time with the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, but in this excerpt, he’s getting some action with a few other models. Namely, the Yangwang U8, U9 and the Aito M9.

Naturally, the Yangwang U9 supercar has his attention. “What’s this a Lamborghini? This sh*t looks sick!” he says, while toying around the car’s features. He’s really impressed with the car’s access to TikTok (called Douyin in China), which is natively integrated into the car’s infotainment screen. Most of the video is of him being in awe of the U9’s party tricks. Like, its ability to do tank turns. Or the fact that it can literally jump. 

He was so impressed by the U9 (and later the U8) that he actually went to the owner and asked to buy the vehicle from him, right then and there. “Oh, if I buy it it’s got to stay in China?” he says. He tries to bargain a bit, asking if the car could be imported to his house in Portugal.

Now, IShowSpeed clearly isn’t a car guy. He’s impressed by the gimmicks and cool stuff on the cars, but he doesn’t know all that much—he’s clear about that in the video itself. But, IShowSpeed’s charismatic delivery and huge outreach are probably a boon for BYD (and Aito). The comments sections and chats of his livestreams are full of similarly impressed viewers, many of them irritated that they can’t buy any of the cars in his video.

Tariffs may have made the idea of Chinese EVs an implausible pipe dream. But, if things change and BYD or others figure out a way to the U.S., these brands could have a surprisingly strong fan base among young people.

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