In January total vehicle exports from China hit 231,000 units, according to the Caam, marking an 87.7% year on year(y/y) growth rate. In February exports hit 180,000 units, marking a 60.8% y/y increase but a 21.9% decline compared to the previous month. In March the figure dropped again to 170,000 units, a decline of 5.5% from the preceding month, and an annual increase of just 28.8% y/y.

The China Association of Automobile Dealers (Cada) said that the main driving force for China’s vehicle exports is demand for new energy vehicles (NEVs) in Europe, specifically those electric vehicles (EVs) built by China’s biggest carmaker, SAIC Motor, as well as EVs built by Tesla. In the first quarter of 2022, a total of 120,000 NEVs were exported from China, of which 117,000 were passenger vehicles and 3,000 were commercial vehicles. In the first quarter of 2021, only 20,000 NEVs were exported from China, of which 18,000 were NEV passenger vehicles, that is battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug in hybrids (PHEVs).