Global Domination

China has quietly become a major exporter of autos, passing the US and South Korea

- Tom Hancock, with Chunying Zhang, Selina Xu and Craig Trudell

When Andreas Tatt, a manager at a greeting card company in Canterbury, UK, was interested in buying a new car, he knew he'd go electric. But after considering a Tesla Model 3 and the Porsche Taycan, he settled on a less familiar choice: a yellow-gold, battery-powered Polestar 2 built by Volvo and its Chinese parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.

"It turns a lot of heads, partly due to its color, partly due to people not knowing what it is," says Tatt, who waited four months for the vehicle to be shipped from Luqiao in eastern China. "I did have some concerns that the build quality may not be the best," he says. "Upon test driving, any doubt of quality issues was put to rest."

As China's auto brands woo more and more foreign customers like Tatt, the nation is poised to become the world's No. 2 exporter of passenger vehicles, a milestone that could reshape the global auto industry and spark new tensions with trading partners and rivals.

Overseas shipments of cars made in China have tripled since 2020 to reach more than 2.5 million last year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. That's only a whisker (about 60,000 units) behind Germany, whose exports have fallen in recent years. China's numbers, behind Japan but ahead of the US and South Korea, herald the emergence of a formidable rival to the global auto giants.

Chinese brands are now market leaders in the Middle East and Latin America. In Europe, the China-made vehicles sold are mostly electric models from Tesla Inc. and Chinese-owned former European brands such as Volvo, MG and Dacia. BMW's best-selling electric vehicle globally, the iX3, is produced exclusively in China and exported to Europe. A raft of homegrown marques like BYD Co. and Nio Inc. are ascending as well, with ambitions to dominate the world of new-energy vehicles. Backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., BYD is already charming EV buyers in developed countries such as Australia.