Chinese automotive manufacturers gain a competitive edge through laxer rules governing personal data protection and intellectual property. Oscar Borgogno and Giovanni Veronese argue that ensuring effective compliance with European law could help European manufacturers re-establish a level playing field while upholding EU constitutional values. Connectivity to cellular networks, the internet, and cloud is a feature of new vehicles. Consumers can stream music, receive traffic and weather updates, and even watch movies. The flip side of this technological development is that vehicles and their manufacturers continuously collect data about drivers, vehicle performance, and surrounding infrastructure. New cars have become digital platforms, and for the most part this has been good for consumers, who receive more sophisticated and safer vehicles in exchange for their data. Data exchange may one day mean advanced autonomous vehicles. Chinese car manufacturers such as BYD Auto have been among the pioneers in developing vehicles that leverage and deliver advanced data-intensive features, which rely on the collection and processing of large volumes of data. However, China’s reputation for maintaining a personal data protection framework that grants the government broad access to privately held data, combined with relatively weak enforcement of intellectual property laws, is likely to pose significant legal barriers to the entry of its vehicles into international markets. This is particularly true in the European Union, where data protection and intellectual property regulations are among the most rigorous and comprehensive. The governance of vehicle data and the licensing of essential connectivity technologies are central to global competition in modern vehicles, shaping regulatory risks, competitive advantages, and potentially the future balance of trade in the electric and autonomous vehicle market. Cross-border data flows and protection of patented connectivity technologies raise two underexplored policy challenges in ongoing trade disputes between the EU and China and suggest more productive pathways