China is the world’s largest producer of light vehicles and its government and Chinese companies have maintained an aggressive sales strategy towards the world’s main markets in recent years.
China displaced the United States as the first origin of automobile imports to Mexico in 2023, after a historical US dominance, according to data from the Ministry of Economy.
In that year, Mexican purchases of cars from China were 4,602 million dollars, while those shipped from the United States totaled 4,486 million dollars.
China is the world’s largest producer of light vehicles and its government and Chinese companies have maintained an aggressive sales strategy towards the world’s main markets in recent years.
To put this into perspective regarding the Mexican market: imports to Mexico of cars of Chinese origin grew 100% and those of US origin advanced 39.6% in 2023, at year-on-year rates.
Looking ahead: this same indicator grew 50.8% in the first five months of 2024 in the case of China and fell 13.9% compared to the United States.
And in a decade of hindsight: Mexican imports of cars from China were practically zero in 2014, in contrast to US imports which were then $3.285 billion.
Another event that exemplifies this dynamism occurs in Europe. Exports of electric vehicles manufactured in China to the European Union (EU) have increased sharply in the last two years. This has led the European Commission to launch an investigation into subsidies in the Chinese electric vehicle industry.
On September 13, 2023, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the start of this investigation. According to her, China is distorting the EU market by keeping prices “artificially low through huge state subsidies.” The investigation formally began on October 4, 2023.
According to the latest statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), passenger vehicle production and sales volume in 2023 were 26.1 million and 26.1 million units respectively, an increase of 9.7 and 10.6%, respectively, compared to 2022.
In turn, the production and sales volume of commercial vehicles in 2023 was 4.0 million units, for both indicators, which represents an increase of 25.0 and 21.2%, at year-on-year rates and in that order.
The growth of China’s automotive production began focused on the domestic market of that nation, but now its dynamism is combined with local and foreign sales.
China not only makes traditional vehicles, but is also a leader in the production of electric vehicles, in addition to the fact that Chinese companies have invested heavily in advanced technology and there has been a greater presence of foreign companies in China’s manufacturing platform.
After registering a year-on-year increase of 15% in 2020, the year that the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the world the most, auto exports from China climbed 146% in 2021, then 83% in 2022 and, finally, 74% in 2023.
This unusual pace allowed China to surpass the United States in its respective auto exports to the world in 2023, with 77,659 million and 63,035 million dollars, respectively.
Source: eleconomista
