For the first time, China is expected to export 1m vehicles this year. Faced with rising competition in their home market, the largest in the world, Chinese carmakers are finding it easier to go abroad and sell cars in less sought-after markets such as Iran and Iraq.
China’s car market has slowed along with the domestic economy, and passenger car sales rose only 6.9 per cent in the year to October. Domestic carmakers have been particularly hard hit by the abolition of government tax incentives that favoured them, losing market share to US, European and Korean rivals.
Japanese carmakers in China have been forced to cede market share due to a Sino-Japanese territorial dispute that caused public protests against Japanese cars. But very little of that market share has gone to Chinese carmakers, which have less than 30 per cent of the market by volume.