Last year saw China overtake Germany to become the world’s second-largest exporter of cars by volume, lagging only Japan. It’s been a long time coming for China which since 2009 has been both the world’s largest car market and producer. In 2022 China exported 2.529 million passenger vehicles, up 56.7% from 2021, out of an overall figure of 3.111 million including commercial vehicles.

However, the number of cars only shows half the picture. In 2021 when China was the fourth largest exporter by volume it was only twelfth by value, behind both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This was still an increase from the seventeenth position in 2020 but it should also be noted that in 2020 the value of imports to China was more than four times those of exports.

 

Mark Andrews has written about everything from Japanese houses to heli hikes on New Zealand glaciers, test drives of Chinese cars to bar and restaurant reviews. He currently specialises in travel articles and reviews of Chinese cars plus articles about the Chinese auto industry.