​Last year, China was the largest exporter of cars, ahead of Japan, with an important contribution from BYD, which increased significantly. China set another record: the largest production of cars in its history, about 30 million cars. 350,000 Tesla cars and almost 100,000 Dacia Spring contributed to the good export performance.

Japan exported 4.42 million vehicles last year, up 16 percent from 2022, while China climbed 58 percent to a record 4.91 million vehicles. Almost 350,000 cars were Tesla Motors.

China grew due to supplies to Asian countries, but also to Russia, where there are not so many brands from the West. Japan has been the largest exporter of cars for the past seven years, behind Germany, which took the top spot in 2016.

China produced a record 29.7 million cars last year, up 1.1 million from 2022.

China wants to export six million cars in 2030, a very ambitious target is to produce another six million cars of Chinese brands outside of China.

Sources: just-auto, Nikkei Asia