China overtakes Japan to become world's top vehicle exporter in 2023

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) has released its annual vehicle figures for January 31, 2024. This shows that China overtook Japan to become the world's largest vehicle exporter in 2023.

China exported 4.91 million vehicles:

• JAMA data shows Japan will export 4.42 million vehicles in 2023, while the number of vehicles exported by China was 4.91 million in January 2024, as reported by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
• Whereas China's Customs Bureau has put its number at more than 5.22 million. This is a massive increase of 57 percent year-on-year.

China is investing extensively in electric cars:

• The Chinese auto sector has boomed in the last few years. The main reason for this is the massive investment in electric cars. This is one area where Japanese companies have been more cautious. One in three of these exported vehicles is an electric vehicle.
• China had already exceeded Japan in monthly vehicle exports before becoming the world's top vehicle exporter in 2023. But data for January 31 confirmed that China remained the top exporter of vehicles for the year as well.

Toyota is the world's largest automobile manufacturing unit:

• Unlike their Chinese counterparts, Japanese automakers, including Toyota, are the world's largest companies by unit sales. This has been confirmed by the data released on January 30, 2024. They also manufacture vehicles in large quantities in other countries.
• In 2022, vehicle production in Japan, excluding motorcycles, totaled 7.84 million units, but overseas production was about 17 million units.

Toyota aims to sell 3.5 million EVs by 2030:

• Japanese automakers have vowed to further improve their exports. Toyota aims to sell 1.5 million EVs annually by 2026 and 3.5 million EVs by 2030.
• Only 1.7 percent of cars sold in Japan in 2022 were electric, while that was about 15 percent in Western Europe, 5.3 percent in the United States and almost one in five in China.

Japanese manufacturers' emphasis on hybrid models:

• Instead of fully electric models, Japanese manufacturers have long focused on hybrids. These combine battery power and internal combustion engines. This is an area in which they debuted with the Toyota Prius.
• The company has also invested heavily in battery technologies and is strongly confident of being able to mass-produce solid-state batteries.

BYD sells more EVs than Tesla:

• Chinese company BYD snatched Tesla's crown for most sales of all electric vehicles (EVs) this month, which took advantage of Beijing's strong government support for the emerging region.

Chinese EVs accused of dumping in western markets:

• China's success in electric vehicles has also put its companies in trouble. Regulators in Western markets have accused them of anti-competitive practices such as price dumping.

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen announced an investigation into Chinese state subsidies for electric cars in September.