According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), my country’s automobile exports exceeded 7 million units in 2025, reaching 7.098 million units, a year-on-year increase of 21.1%, making China the world’s largest automobile exporter. This marks the third consecutive year that China has maintained its position as the world’s number one automobile exporter.
CAAM pointed out that in 2025, companies increasingly focused on expanding into overseas markets, the international competitiveness of Chinese brands continued to improve, joint ventures also performed well in exports, and exports of new energy vehicles grew rapidly, driving my country’s automobile exports to a new level.
Specifically, among the top ten vehicle exporters, Chery exported 1.344 million vehicles in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 17.4%, accounting for 18.9% of total exports, ranking first among vehicle exporters.
BYD emerged as the biggest dark horse, exporting 1.054 million vehicles in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 1.4 times. Compared with the same period in 2024, BYD’s export growth was the most significant, rising from sixth to second place.
The automobile export landscape is also changing. In 2023 and 2024, Russia was consistently China’s largest export destination for automobiles. However, in 2025, my country’s exports to Russia declined.
According to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), from January to November 2025, my country exported 513,078 automobiles to Russia; in the same period of 2024, this figure was 1,059,990. Mexico subsequently became my country’s top export destination, with exports reaching 573,453 units in the same period of 2025.
In recent years, automobile exports have been soaring. Looking ahead to 2026, Gong Min, Head of Automotive Research at UBS China, stated that overseas sales have increased by approximately 1 million units annually in recent years.
In 2023, nearly 2 million more vehicles were sold, due to the dramatic changes in the Russian market that year and the withdrawal of Western automakers, resulting in an additional sales volume of almost 2 million units.
“We believe that the increase of 1.5 million vehicles sold overseas this year, which is a further improvement over the past few years, is partly due to the pressure from the domestic market, and partly due to the fact that various car companies have achieved scale, established channels, brand awareness, and even overseas production capacity.”
In recent years, my country’s automotive industry chain and supply chain have been continuously improved, its industrial structure has been constantly adjusted and upgraded, and the scale of automobile exports has been expanding steadily.
In 2023, China exported 4.91 million automobiles, surpassing Japan for the first time to become the world’s largest exporter. Standing on this starting point, Chinese automakers have further accelerated their pace of overseas expansion.
In 2025, China’s automobile exports will reach a new high, with total exports reaching 7.098 million vehicles, firmly maintaining its position as the world’s largest exporter. Within the export structure, new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles have shown different trends.
Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), pointed out that as China’s domestic new energy vehicle market shifts from subsidy-driven to market-driven growth, the market competitiveness of Chinese new energy vehicles has increased significantly.
China’s new energy vehicle exports experienced explosive growth starting in 2021, subsequently entering a period of sustained high growth. In 2025, new energy vehicle exports reached 2.615 million units, a year-on-year increase of 100%; traditional fuel vehicle exports reached 4.483 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 2%.
A prominent feature of new energy vehicle exports is the strong growth rate of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) exports. In 2025, pure electric vehicle exports reached 1.646 million units, a year-on-year increase of 66.7%; PHEV exports reached 969,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 230%.
A previous research report by China Merchants Bank pointed out that, similar to the domestic market, in markets with certain conditions, compared to relying on traditional gasoline vehicles or pure electric vehicles as the main product strategy, Chinese automakers using PHEVs as their market entry point can not only effectively avoid direct competition with international automakers, but also, with the advantage of being first-mover, Chinese automakers have greater pricing power in the PHEV category. Therefore, domestic brands will also perform better in terms of profit.
With exports rising, automakers are further increasing their investment in overseas markets.
Looking at the export situation of enterprises, eight of the top ten vehicle exporters achieved positive export growth. Among them, Chery retained its position as the top exporter.
In 2025, Chery’s exports reached 1.344 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 17.4%, accounting for 18.9% of total exports. Chery is one of the earliest Chinese automakers to explore overseas markets.
In 2025, Chery upgraded its globalization strategy to “In somewhere, For somewhere, Be somewhere,” shifting its focus from exporting products to exporting its brand and ecosystem.
Another dark horse in 2025 was BYD, whose export sales exceeded 1 million vehicles for the first time, reaching 1.054 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.4 times. Its export sales ranking rose from sixth in 2024 to second. In 2025, BYD not only expanded into emerging markets such as Iraq but also commenced production at its passenger car plant in Brazil.
By December 2025, BYD’s export volume was very close to Chery’s, with BYD exporting 133,000 vehicles that month, while Chery exported 144,000.
SAIC Motor ranked third in export sales, with its 2025 export volume reaching 950,000 vehicles.
In 2025, SAIC officially launched its Overseas Strategy 3.0 – the Glocal Strategy, which is a combination of “global + local” strategy. It actively builds a localized ecosystem and a global automotive brand, and promotes the upgrade from “product export” to “value chain export”.
Exporting automobiles overseas has become a consensus, with Chinese automakers contributing to the prosperity of automobile exports.
However, the global automobile market exhibits different characteristics, and while Chinese automakers are adapting their strategies to local conditions, they also face challenges.
In 2025, the destinations for Chinese automobile exports will undergo significant changes. From January to November 2025, Mexico will replace Russia as China’s largest automobile export destination.
“The structure of automobile exports changed from January to November 2025, with Mexico rising to the top export position, and exports to the UAE also increasing,” Cui Dongshu pointed out.
According to data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the top 10 countries in terms of total vehicle exports from January to November 2025 were: Mexico (573,453 units), Russia (513,078 units), UAE (465,539 units), Brazil (285,122 units), UK (280,760 units), Australia (278,381 units), Belgium (275,764 units), Saudi Arabia (265,762 units), Philippines (236,466 units), and Kazakhstan (188,218 units).
Compared to the rapid growth in exports to Mexico and the UAE, China’s exports to Russia declined significantly year-on-year. From January to November 2024, my country’s exports to Russia exceeded one million units, while the figure for the same period in 2025 was 513,000 units.
“Russia’s import rules are constantly adjusted according to supply and demand. Russian car sales in 2024 were already at their highest level in recent years, so a decline in 2025 was inevitable,” Cui Dongshu pointed out. He added that since 2023, Russia has suddenly become China’s largest car export market, marking another major shift in Chinese car exports after 15 years.
In 2008, Chinese domestic brands performed well in the Russian market, but with Russia imposing huge tariffs on Chinese cars, many Chinese automakers withdrew from Russia that year. The decline in the first half of 2025 was somewhat similar to the trend in 2009, but there has been improvement since then.
Furthermore, the EU market is another important market for new energy vehicle exports.
According to data disclosed by Cui Dongshu, in terms of pure electric vehicle exports, the EU market saw 580,000 units exported from January to November 2025, ranking first.
The EU is a major market for my country’s pure electric vehicle exports, but previously, Chinese car exports to the EU were affected by factors such as tariffs.
On January 12th of this year, the Ministry of Commerce issued a notification regarding the progress of consultations on the China-EU electric vehicle case. The notification pointed out that it is necessary for both China and the EU to provide general guidance on price undertakings to Chinese exporters of pure electric vehicles to the EU, so that Chinese exporters can adopt more practical, targeted methods that comply with WTO rules.
Cui Dongshu believes that in the initial stage of the price undertaking mechanism, some automakers may experience short-term sales fluctuations due to adjustments in product pricing and structure.
However, as automakers adapt to the new rules, localize production capacity, and improve product competitiveness, sales of Chinese electric vehicles in the EU market will gradually recover.
It is projected that from 2026 to 2028, China’s electric vehicle exports to the EU will maintain an average annual growth rate of around 20%, becoming an important engine for the growth of the global electric vehicle market.
From Russia to Mexico, from the UAE to the EU… China’s car exports have exceeded 7 million units, not only consolidating its position as the world’s largest car exporter but also achieving breakthroughs in multiple regional markets.
Meanwhile, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) pointed out that in 2026, Chinese automakers going global may still face certain risks, such as global geopolitical uncertainties, economic downturns, and escalating trade disputes;
as well as the shift from pure exports to localized production: the deepening of globalization operations may statistically manifest as a slowdown in export growth or even a decrease in volume.
As the requirements for Chinese automakers going global shift from competition based on single products to competition across the entire industry chain ecosystem, Chinese automakers still need to gradually mitigate risks and deepen their globalization efforts through localized production, technology export, and ecosystem building.
