China’s electric vehicle (EV) exports have rapidly increased over the past few years. China is expected to accelerate its EV exports by leveraging its competitive pricing. According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) and the electric vehicle industry on the 12th, the total number of new energy vehicles (NEVs) exported from China, including EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), reached 1,036,000 units last year. This is the first time that China’s annual EV exports have surpassed one million units.
This figure represents a 68.5% increase compared to the 614,900 units exported in 2022.
China’s EV exports show no signs of slowing down this year. The cumulative number of NEVs exported in January and February this year was 174,000 units, an increase of 13.7% compared to the same period in 2023 (153,000 units) and a whopping 78.8% increase compared to the same period in 2022 (97,300 units).
The proportion of NEVs in the total number of passenger cars exported also rose from 28.1% in 2022 to 29.7% last year, an increase of 1.6 percentage points.
The industry sees that Chinese EV companies have aggressively expanded into overseas markets since 2022. These Chinese companies have built factories in Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America to meet local demand. They have also been increasing their export volumes preemptively in response to measures by the United States and some European countries to raise or impose tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars since two years ago.
China is also known to be actively entering the Middle Eastern market. Han Su Jin, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment’s research center who has been studying the global EV circumstances, said, “As competition in the domestic market in China intensifies this year, Chinese EV companies have no choice but to continue expanding their exports.”She added, “These companies are expected to accelerate their entry into overseas markets by leveraging their competitive pricing.”
Amid this situation, there are consistent predictions that BYD, China’s top EV company, will enter the South Korean market as early as the second half of this year. Speculations have been raised that the company is looking to expand its organization further, as it has been reported that BYD is currently hiring personnel to be in charge of importing and exporting cars and supply chain management (SCM) in Korea.
A BYD Korea official said, “We are actively considering entering the Korean passenger car market, but nothing has been decided yet.” He added, “I am not sure about the personnel-related matters.”
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