For the first time, China has overtaken Japan in car exports.
This has been confirmed by the Chinese Manufacturers Association, according to which, last year almost 5.3 million vehicles left the country. And that over 3.8 million of them were passenger cars.
According to official statistics, Japan exported a little more than 4 million passenger cars in the first 11 months of 2023. So it is unlikely that the gap of more than one million vehicles between the two Asian countries will be closed in less than a month.
As such, Japan's overtaking crowns Chinese President Xi Jinping's long-term plan to make China an automotive superpower. A goal achieved thanks to billions of dollars in incentives for the local supply chain, protectionist policies in the domestic market and non-compliance with Western sanctions against Russia.
After the war in Ukraine, European and American manufacturers stopped deliveries and production of cars in Russia. Chinese companies such as BYD and Chery were quick to fill the void left by their Western rivals, quintupling their sales in Russia.
Meanwhile, the decision of several Western brands to open factories in China also contributed to the growth of Beijing's exports.
Last year, Tesla sold over 344,000 cars produced at its Shanghai gigafactory.
Likewise, other automobile giants such as BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen have large manufacturing plants in China that produce for both the domestic and international markets.
The primacy achieved by China in 2023 is still mainly due to exports of traditional, petrol and diesel cars. However, to maintain and consolidate it, Beijing is focusing on electric mobility, a sector in which Chinese companies have built a competitive advantage thanks to control of the entire supply chain.
It is no coincidence that in the last quarter of last year BYD passed Tesla in terms of registrations, confirming the shift in the attraction of the automobile industry from the West to the East.