I test drove a Chinese EV. Now I don’t want to buy American cars anymore.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. My dearest Xiaomi SU7 Max, It’s been about a month since we were last together. Now, every time I climb back into my Ford Mustang Mach-E, I can’t stop thinking about you—your long range, your modular interior, your absurdly large infotainment screen.

At night, I miss your adjustable color lighting. On weekends, the kids talk about your wireless karaoke mics, walkie-talkies and yes, that back-seat minifridge. Please come back to America…for me.

Always, Joanna The Xiaomi SU7 Max—like other Chinese-made cars—is effectively blocked from the U.S. market. And yet, late last year, I spent two weeks test-driving one of China’s hottest cars around the mean streets of New Jersey.

A friend who previously worked at Xiaomi bought the car and got a temporary permit to drive it in the U.S. He generously let me take it for an extended spin. My time with the car confirmed what experts in the auto industry have long been saying: Holy crap, China is winning the digitally enhanced electric-car race.

Chinese EV makers such as Xiaomi, BYD and Geely have earned global accolades because their cars deliver longer battery ranges and deeply integrated digital platforms. We’re talking software that feels smooth like a brand new smartphone, not a screen you have to jab five times to load a map. Plus, they often cost tens of thousands of dollars less than Western competitors.

In Europe and Mexico, they’re blowing past Tesla and other EV rivals. “The competitive reality is that the Chinese are the 700-pound gorilla in the EV industry," Ford CEO Jim Farley told me in an interview last year. “There’s no real competition from Tesla, GM or Ford with what we’ve seen from China." Even Farley, after driving a Xiaomi SU7,