China's overseas car exports have broad prospects

On July 31st, Xu Changming, Senior Economist at the National Information Center, delivered a keynote speech at the "Globalization Strategy and Compliance Challenges" parallel forum of the 2025 Automotive New Productivity Development Forum held in Chongqing. He stated that the international competitiveness of China's auto industry is constantly improving, and the prospects for auto exports overseas are broad. We should seize this rare historical opportunity, especially the development opportunities in emerging markets with rapidly growing auto demand, and deepen the upgrading and innovation of our overseas export models.

Xu Changming, Senior Economist at the National Information Center, delivered a keynote speech at the "Globalization Strategy and Compliance Challenges" parallel forum at the 2025 Automotive New Quality Productivity Development Forum.

Xu Changming explained that China's auto exports have achieved leapfrog development in recent years. In terms of volume, China's auto export sales are expected to jump from 990,000 units in 2020 to 5.86 million units in 2024. Starting in 2023, China's auto exports will rank first in the world. Furthermore, China's auto exports are widely and diversely distributed across a wide range of regions, indicating strong stability in auto exports.

Looking at the global automobile market demand, Xu Changming pointed out that over the past 20 years, the growth of global automobile demand has been mainly concentrated in emerging markets. In the future, the automobile penetration rate will continue to grow with economic development, which provides an important market space for Chinese automobiles to go overseas.

Currently, China's automotive industry is internationally competitive and well-suited to global market demands, particularly in emerging markets. "By 2024, for every 100 new energy vehicles sold in emerging markets outside of China, 51 will be Chinese brands," Xu Changming said. He further cited the example of 77,000 electric vehicles sold in Thailand in 2024, with 59,000 being Chinese brands, representing a 76.7% share.

"Autos produced in our country, especially Chinese brands, are becoming increasingly popular in the international market," said Xu Changming. The National Information Center's automotive industry research team has learned from research that overseas car users are increasingly positive about Chinese cars, especially new energy vehicles. Chinese brands are increasingly recognized by overseas users for their appearance, quality, safety, and intelligent features.

Source: China Financial Information Network