Visitors look at electric cars of Chinese car brand BYD at the IAA Mobility 2023 international motor show on September 6, 2023 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Leonhard Simon/Getty Images; VCG)

Edited by GONG Qian

“There’s a new king of the global auto market,” said Fortune magazine.

China's auto exports last year surged 57.9 percent from a year prior to 4.91 million units, said the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) on January 11, adding that China is estimated to surpass Japan to become the world’s top automobile exporter for 2023.

This has the world sitting up and paying attention. Japan's NHK news agency reported that as of last November, the country's car exports stood at 3.99 million units, and it is almost certain that the figure will not exceed China’s, once Japan’s 12 month total is known.

The past several years saw China leapfrog from third to first place for car exports. CNN reported that Chinese car exports took off in 2021, thanks to the country’s surging EV shipments. That year, China’s car shipments soared 103 percent to 2.2 million units, surpassing South Korea to become the world’s third-largest exporter.

China overtook Germany in 2022 to become the world's second-largest exporter after Japan, and just one year on, it has claimed the top spot, said the Detroit News, adding that China's exports have jumped from one million units in 2020, to nearly five times that number in three years.

China’s success is being driven by a domestic shift toward EVs, said Fortune. These figures represent the most recent indication that China is a global auto exporting giant, thanks in large part to its nimble automobile manufacturers and their ability to manufacture electrical vehicles, said Reuters. BYD overtook Tesla as the world's top seller of EVs in the fourth quarter of 2023.

China’s leading role in the global EV industry is also down to its market scale, cheap labor and supply chain dominance, according to analysts, CNN reported. “China is now leading in production and increasing its comparative edges, banking on its massive domestic market and the first mover advantage,”  CNN quoted analysts from a French investment bank as saying.

Paul Gong, an analyst at UBS, cited China’s “advantage in terms of technology” and “good command of some manufacturing techniques” as reasons for the country’s EV advantage, as reported by South China Morning Post.

Chinese EVs are “snazzy, whizzy” and are “better-quality, particularly with respect to the smart features in EVs that are made possible by Internet connectivity,” said The Economist. 

Reuters said that the Chinese EV manufacturers have also developed an advanced technology edge, particularly when it comes to software and the ability to design new models in a timely manner. “China’s carmakers are going to be hard to overtake.”

As the world decarbonizes, demand will rise further. Fitch Ratings said in a report last month that it expects the share of new energy vehicles, including hybrids, to rise to 42-45 percent of China’s total sales in 2024, as reported by AP. It also projected that exports would grow 20 to 30 percent this year.

By 2030, China could double its share of the global market, to a third, ending the dominance of the West’s national champions, especially in Europe, said The Economist.