The European Union remains the world's largest exporter of vehicles
- According to ACEA, the European Union exported 5.5 million cars in 2022. Despite strong growth in exports from China (see below), the European Union remains significantly, the world's largest exporter of motor vehicles. However, it is possible to wonder if this is not an optical illusion due to a Brexit effect (as now vehicles sent to UK are considered as exports). In fact it is nothing. Indeed, of the 5.5 million exported by the European Union, just over 1 million are destined to the United Kingdom, which is no longer part of the European Union. If we subtract them, exports from the European Union remains, at around 4 million units, far ahead of China and Japan. Another analysis consists in considering Europe in the broader sense, taking into account the former perimeter of the European Union (current EU + United Kingdom). In this case, the entity also remains the world's largest exporter, with 4.65 million cars exported in 2022 (= UE exports + UK exports outside EU).
- China's car exports, which were stable between 2010 and 2020, jumped from 2021, partly due to the desire of several Chinese carmakers to attack the European market (200 000 sales in Europe in 2022 against 85,000 in 2021 and 36,000 in 2020), on the other hand the decision to manufacture in China European or American models exported all over the world, and finally the consequences of the departure of European carmakers and from Russia, which has opened up a boulevard to Chinese carmakers (125,000 sales in Russia in 2022 compared to 115,000 in 2021 and 57,000 in 2020). The volume of China's automobile exports has thus increased from 450,000 units in 2015 to 760,000 in 2020, 1,614,000 in 2021 and 2,529,000 in 2022. According to figures for the first quarter of 2023 (1,142,000 units), nearly 3.5 million automobiles are expected to be exported from China this year as a whole.
- Compared to Japan, one of the world's leading automobile exporters, China remained behind until 2022. In the first quarter of 2023, China is hot on the heels of Japan (1,167,000 units).