China is now leading the electric vehicle export market, shipping approximately 500,000 electric cars throughout 2021. This is more than any other country in the world, thanks to increased sales in Europe and Southeast Asia.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs and Excise of China, the number of passenger electric vehicles from the Bamboo Curtain country exported in 2021 increased 2.6 times to 499,573 units.
Meanwhile, Germany doubled its exports by around 230 thousand units. Meanwhile, the United States experienced a 30 percent decline in exports of electric vehicles to only 110 thousand units, and Japan increased 24 percent to 27,400 units.
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With this record, China accounts for 60 percent of global electric vehicle production, and is emerging as the world's factory for electric vehicles.
Exports of electric vehicles from China to Europe alone increased fivefold to 230 thousand units, with Belgium absorbing 87 thousand units and Britain 50,000 units. This achievement is due to the European Union's policy of prohibiting the sale of new hybrid and gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.
Of the nearly 500,000 units exported, more than 100,000 of them came from Tesla's factory in Shanghai.
“In China, production costs are about 50 percent lower than in other countries around the world due to more efficient procurement,” an official at a Chinese electric vehicle parts maker told Nikkei.
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According to Nikkei research based on data from LMC Automotive, a British research company, global electric vehicle production in 2021 will be 3.99 million units. China accounted for 57.4 percent of the total, Europe and the US at 22% and 12% respectively, while Japan only accounted for 0.9%.
