Original title: In the first quarter, the export volume of automobiles surpassed that of Japan and became the world’s largest. The contribution of Chinese automobiles to overseas Zhejiang
Recently, the news that “China’s automobile export volume ranks first in the world” once became a hot topic. Exports will surpass South Korea in 2021 and Germany in 2022. Statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that in the first quarter of this year, domestic auto companies exported 994,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 70.6%, surpassing Japan’s 954,000 vehicles. In the first four months of this year, Chinese auto companies exported 1.37 million vehicles.
What does it mean that China’s car exports ranked first in the world in the first quarter? How much does Zhejiang contribute to the export of “top students”?
The road to catch up
According to public reports, in 2009, China became the world‘s largest automobile production and sales country for the first time. China’s auto production and sales in that year were 13.5 million. Japan ranked second with 12.4 million vehicles. The United States ranked third with 10.5 million vehicles.
“The year of the rise of China’s auto industry should be 2009.” According to Zhang Hong, secretary-general of the New Energy Automobile Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association, when domestic production and sales surpass that of the United States and Japan, it will be a matter of time before the export volume surpasses that of the United States and Japan.
Export catching up is positively related to the strong rise of China’s new energy vehicles in recent years.
According to the latest data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first four months of this year, China exported 348,000 new energy vehicles, accounting for a quarter of the total number of exported vehicles. The export of new energy vehicles is growing rapidly.
“China’s new energy vehicles have the characteristics of intelligent networking and are very popular in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asian markets.” Zhang Hong said that on the way to catch up, some domestic auto brands have successfully stood out, such as BYD. According to public data, by 2022 It has surpassed Tesla and become the sales champion in the field of new energy vehicles in the world.
Thanks to China’s effective prevention and control of the new crown epidemic, in the context of limited supply of raw materials such as chips and power batteries in the world, China’s auto industry has done a good job in ensuring supply. At that time, Chinese-made cars effectively supplemented the global market, thus gaining a huge increase.
Zhang Hong said that by improving cutting-edge technologies, China has created an automobile industry with strong R&D and innovation capabilities, rich product lines, high quality and reasonable cost. Especially in the field of new energy vehicles, with the gradual improvement of the domestic new energy vehicle industry chain and the enhancement of independent controllability of technology, domestic new energy vehicles maintain a strong competitive advantage.
How is the outlook
According to analysis by industry insiders, if the domestic auto market picks up in the next two, three, and four quarters and the production capacity of domestic auto companies does not expand, it remains to be seen whether China can continue to become the largest auto exporter. However, some organizations boldly predict that China’s auto export volume is expected to reach 4 million this year, surpassing Japan throughout the year, and becoming the world‘s largest auto exporter.
However, the export volume temporarily ranks first, which does not mean that domestically-produced cars have a leading position in the world.
Still taking Japanese cars as an example, the current global annual sales of Japanese cars remain between 25 million and 30 million. Japan digests 4 million cars domestically, exports 3.5 million cars, and nearly 20 million Japanese cars are produced in its production bases around the world.
It is not difficult to find that in addition to local exports, the most important thing for automobile powerhouses such as Europe, America and Japan is to seize the global automobile market share through globalization. For Chinese car companies, exporting their products overseas is only the first step to go global.
In terms of auto export, China still needs to work hard in many aspects. For example, the share of mainstream markets such as Europe, America and Japan, the proportion of high-end models, and the independent controllability of core technologies. Even a small car-grade chip still needs our efforts.
Zhejiang contribution
Zhejiang is one of the pioneers in China’s auto export.
About 3 years ago, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the trendiest neighborhood in the city, Lynk & Co, a Chinese car brand, launched the first offline experience store in Europe, marking the real entry of Chinese independent car brands into the European market.
Although the design and development are all in Europe, and it has a pure “European face”, the hometown of Lynk & Co is Zhejiang. As of now, Lynk & Co has opened 8 experience stores in Hamburg, Germany and Rome, Italy, and will open experience stores in more European cities in the future.
According to incomplete statistics, in the first four months of this year, Zhejiang exported 53,700 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 30.3%, of which 26,400 new energy vehicles were exported, a year-on-year increase of 87.2%. It can be said that Zhejiang auto companies are working hard.
Among the top ten Chinese auto exporters in the first four months of this year released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Geely ranked fourth. Since the beginning of this year, it has exported a total of 76,000 vehicles, making positive contributions to the export of Chinese autos. At the same time, as new energy vehicles become the main direction of the transformation and development of the global auto industry and an important engine to promote the sustained growth of the world economy, China’s auto exports powered by new energy vehicles will continue to “surge”.
New car-making forces from Zhejiang are also speeding up their deployment in overseas markets. On March 21 this year, at Nansha Port in Guangzhou, 3,600 Nezha Vs from Hezhong Motors in Zhejiang Province started shipping overseas, becoming the largest single batch of export orders among new Chinese car manufacturers. At the same time, the production base factory of Hezhong Motors in Thailand started construction in Bangkok. This is the first Thai factory of a new Chinese car maker. It is expected to have an annual production capacity of 20,000 units after completion.
At the beginning of this year, Leapmotor also embarked on the road to overseas, and the first batch of T03 new energy vehicles were successfully exported to Israel. At present, Leapmotor has passed the EU vehicle type certification, obtained the sales license, and can be officially registered in all EU countries. In the future, it will lay out the markets of EU member states.
In addition to complete vehicles, Zhejiang auto parts companies are also actively embedded in the global auto industry chain. More than 2,600 auto manufacturing companies above designated size have basically covered the entire field of parts and components, and completed a reasonable layout from core auto parts to complete vehicle companies. .
However, the relevant person in charge of the High-end Equipment Division (Automobile Industry Division) of the Provincial Department of Economics and Information Technology stated that compared with other provinces in China, the speed and quality of Zhejiang’s automobiles going overseas still need to be improved, and Zhejiang’s automobile companies are still not strong enough in overseas market layout. (Reporter Xia Dan)