According to information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2023, China will export 4.91 million vehicles, surpassing Japan and becoming the country with the most exports of cars in the world.
It is a good thing that China's car exports are in the fast lane. On the one hand, it can alleviate the pressure on Chinese brands to roll up in the Chinese market. The second is to enhance brand awareness. The third is to further promote the right of Chinese automobiles to speak in the new energy market. But on the one hand, we see the efforts of Chinese brands, and on the other hand, we also see that China's auto exports, there is still room for improvement.
1] The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has helped Chinese cars!
In 2023, more than 900,000 Chinese car exports will be exported to Russia, accounting for a very high proportion. The fundamental reason is that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to the withdrawal of many car brands from the Russian market, coupled with the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia, which has given Chinese car brands room to survive. In other words, a large number of Chinese cars are exported to the Russian market because of the withdrawal of other brands, which is for political reasons, not product reasons. Assuming that there is no conflict between Russia and Ukraine, will Chinese cars still have the current situation in the Russian market? That's a question mark!
In addition to Russia, the place where China exports the most cars is Mexico, at 4150,000 units. Exported to Belgium 21740,000 units, exported to Australia 21460,000 units, exported to the UK 21380,000 units. Its influence is far less than that of Russia, so there is still a lot of room for improvement for Chinese brands in terms of opening up overseas markets.
2] The globalization and high-end of Chinese brands still have room for development.
Among the top 10 exporters in 2023, we see Chinese brands such as SAIC, Chery, Geely, and Changan. Although BYD is also on the list, its export volume is much lower than that of other brands. It is not difficult to see several characteristics from this. First of all, BYD, which has high domestic sales, is not the best in the overseas market at present. At least not as good as SAIC and Chery, which is what BYD needs to improve in the future, or perhaps because the demand for new energy vehicles in overseas markets is still not as high as the internal combustion engine.
Secondly, Chery's export volume is very good every year, but the sales volume in the domestic market has been inferior to Geely and BYD, which fully shows the difference between the overseas market and the Chinese market. It also shows the importance of channels, because Chery, as the first brand to set foot in overseas markets, has established sales channels, and product strength does not seem to be the most important.
Third, SAIC's most exported brand is MG, which is not a homegrown brand, but was realized after SAIC acquired MG in the UK. For foreigners, they also think that the car they bought is a British car. It's like if you buy a Volvo now and think it's a Swedish luxury brand, but it's actually owned by Geely. Therefore, the globalization and high-end of China's local brands still have room for development.
3] The export volume of non-Chinese brands such as Tesla is also not low.
Among the top 10 models exported by volume, we find two Tesla models. And the export volume is not low. This is still what we can see on the list, and what we can't see is Peugeot Citroen, Hyundai Kia, Buick, Volvo, Honda and many other cars produced in China and exported to the world, and many more. Its proportion is not low. This also tells us that although China's automobile exports are very large, many of them are exported by foreign brands in Chinese factories, and its core is still relying on China's cheap production costs and mature first-class chain system. It does not show the globalization and premiumization of Chinese car brands.
In the end, although China's automobile exports have become the world's first. However, at present, China still does not have a global car brand, and there is still no global high-end brand. Therefore, the globalization of Chinese auto brands still has a long way to go.