In 2023, China will officially replace Japan as the world's number one automobile exporter.

　　In recent years, China's new energy vehicles have developed extremely rapidly. While the domestic penetration rate has continued to increase, the export volume has also risen rapidly. This has led many people to attribute the surge in Chinese automobile exports to the vigorous development of new energy vehicles.

　　But in addition to new energy vehicles, in fact, China's fuel vehicle exports to Southeast Asia and Europe, especially Russia, have increased significantly, which is also an important reason behind it.Nowadays, Russia is becoming a “sweet potato" for domestic car companies to compete for exports.

　　1. Russia has become the “big brother” of Chinese car companies exporting overseas.

　　With the gradual withdrawal of overseas car companies, although Russia's car production and sales have declined significantly, market demand has not decreased synchronously.

　　At the same time, the exports of Chinese car companies to Russia have increased significantly.It will reach 163,000 vehicles in 2022, and it will increase by 459% to 910,000 vehicles in 2023.In the top ten car models sold in Russia in 2023, Chinese brands occupy 6 seats, and the market share is as high as 26%.

　　In 2023, China's total automobile exports will reach 5.22 million vehicles, an increase of 54% year-on-year.Among them, cars exported to Russia contributed 46% of the total increase, far surpassing the second-ranked increase in cars exported to Mexico (8%).At a time when local Russian car brands have not yet been able to have sufficient strength to fully support the entire car market, Chinese brands are seizing the opportunity to occupy the local car market.

　　2. China's fuel vehicles are also accelerating to sea

　　The sudden rise of new energy vehicles in China has brought some changes to the structure of the global car market.Up to now, China's new energy vehicles have achieved a rise in the volume and price of exports.

　　In terms of exports, China's new energy vehicles have increased from about 540,000 in 2021 to about 1.6 million in 2023, with a compound growth rate of 72%.

　　In terms of average export prices, China's new energy vehicles increased from US119,500 in 2021 to US223,800 in 2023, with a compound growth rate of 11%.

　　However, at present, China's exports of new energy vehicles are still mostly dominated by developed countries in Europe, as well as Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Brazil.For the fuel vehicle market, in fact, the overall competitiveness of domestic car companies is still very limited.

　　And in recent years, domestic exports of new energy vehicles are being affected by external shocks.In the second half of last year, the European Commission launched a countervailing investigation into China's pure electric manned vehicles for the first time; in May this year, the United States announced new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and some power battery materials, and the tariff range was greatly increased from 25% to 100%.

　　Changes in the external environment have caused many domestic new energy vehicle companies, power battery manufacturers and power battery material manufacturers to shelve some overseas factory construction plans.

　　But this has no effect on the export process of domestic fuel vehicles.In the first quarter of this year, China's exports of fuel-fired passenger cars increased at a year-on-year rate (26%), which has surpassed that of pure electric passenger cars (12%).

　　Domestic fuel vehicle exports have also increased from 1.47 million in 2021 to 3.34 million in 2023, with a compound growth rate of 51%.

　　At present, domestic automobile manufacturers' exports to Russia are mainly divided into three models: domestic factories in Russia, factories in countries near Russia, and direct exports from the country.

　　Among them, Great Wall Motor chose to build a factory in Otura, Russia; Geely Automobile chose to build a factory in Minsk, Belarus; and Chery Automobile, which occupies the top spot in the hot sale of Russian automobiles, chose to export directly.

　　As the share of Chinese car companies in the Russian car market has gradually grown, the local car market is now in a situation where local Russian brands and Chinese brands each account for half of the country (in 2023, the total share of Chinese car companies in the Russian car market is about 45%).

　　Chinese car companies are still accelerating their overseas expansion.