China has become the world‘s largest car exporter. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
China has become the world‘s largest car exporter in 2023. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, one reason for this is strong demand from Russia.
Chinese automakers are filling the gap in Russia left by the withdrawal of Western brands after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Corporations from Europe, Japan and Korea no longer deliver cars directly to Russia and have also stopped cooperation in production in Russia.
China’s automobile industry is a beneficiary of the war in Ukraine. After Russia’s attack on the neighboring country, German, other European, Japanese and Korean car brands left the Russian market. But China’s car companies have stayed and closed the gap. The additional demand from Russia has increased, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal contributed to China now replacing Japan as the world‘s largest car exporter.
In 2023, China sold around 800,000 cars in Russia, around five times as many as in 2022 (160,000). This comes from data from the China Passenger Car Association, reports the Journal.
A total of 5.26 million Chinese-made vehicles were sold abroad last year, about a million more than those sold by Japanese automakers. China would have overtaken Japan even without the growth in the Russian market.
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China’s largest automaker Chery has seen sales boom to Russia, shipping a total of 900,000 cars overseas. Manufacturers Geely and Great Wall Motor also saw a sharp increase in car sales to Russia.
At the same time, domestic demand for cars in China also recovered in 2023, with the electric vehicle sector recording the strongest growth, the automobile association said. Tesla’s Chinese rival BYD replaced Elon Musk’s company as the world‘s largest seller of electric vehicles in the last quarter.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, purchases of cars from foreign manufacturers in Russia almost came to a standstill. A combination of rising prices, consumer caution, and dwindling supply caused domestic car sales to fall to about a quarter of prewar levels.
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