China could turn into the largest worldwide exporter of new vehicles, coming ahead of Japan, CNBC reports quoting Moody’s Analytics.
By volume alone, China has already surpassed Germany (in 2022) and South Korea (in 2021).
In the second quarter of the current year, the difference between China and Japan vehicle exports has shrunk to just 70,000 monthly units. It was 2.5 times as big just a year ago.
Carmakers in China have already recovered from Covid-19 and surpassed their pre-Covid performance indicators, while Japan and Thailand – just to name a few markets – have yet to return to their pre-pandemic sales volumes.
Asked for an explanation, the analysts say the EV boom is largely to thank for things being this way. The profits of China-based automakers from EV sales have doubled in Q1 2023 compared to the same period the year before.
Experts believe that the biggest advantage of China comes from the sheer volume of lithium-ion batteries produced in the country, which lets all automakers nationwide minimize EV costs.