Making Money from Foreigners is Easier, Exporting Chinese Cars Shocks Europe and America!

With the rapid rise of China's new energy vehicles, coupled with international oil price volatility caused by the Middle East situation, China's car exports saw rapid growth in the first half of this year, while semi-annual financial reports of long-standing automakers like Toyota, Volkswagen, and General Motors were not very good, making many people smell the taste of "The Awakening of the Eastern Industrial Cthulhu, the car market is about to change."

Jan-June exports 5.1 million units, 65% growth rate scares foreigners.

According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in June this year, China's car exports reached 1.04 million units, a year-on-year increase of 75%, with the monthly export volume exceeding one million for the first time; adding up the export data from January to June, car exports in the first half of this year reached 5.1 million units, with a year-on-year growth rate of 65%, basically locking in the milestone of 10 million units of export volume for the year 2026 in advance.

Looking at the proportion of exports to total sales, China's car export volume accounts for ±35% of the total production and sales volume this year, meaning that for every 100 cars produced in China, 65 are consumed domestically, while another 35 are sold abroad, and this proportion was 20 units in 2025.

From the perspective of major domestic automakers, facing the deeply involutionary domestic car market, the profit margin per vehicle in the domestic market has been suppressed very low, and exports have already become a new growth point for automakers to generate revenue. Especially in the European market, influenced by factors such as energy, environmental protection, and costs, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as "easy money", no wonder all major automakers and new forces are trying their best to expand overseas.

Chery: High volume, full supply, doubled prices, profits rely entirely on export cars.

Specifically regarding individual automakers, Chery Group topped Chinese automakers with an export volume of 944,000 units from January to June, a year-on-year increase of 71%. As a long-standing export automaker, Chery Motors has a stable distribution system in countries and regions around the world, which is an important foundation for the surge in export volume.

From January to June this year, Chery Group's total sales volume was 1.358 million units, with overseas sales accounting for ±70% of total sales, meaning that for every 10 cars Chery sells, 7 are sold to foreigners, and only 3 car owners are Chinese. This data is something no other automaker can currently achieve, including FAW, SAIC, BYD, etc.

For reference, the OMODA 9 (Exeed Yao Guang) exported to the European market, its Super Hybrid version is priced starting at 51,900 Euros in Italy, translating to approximately 423,900 RMB based on current exchange rates, directly benchmarking against luxury cars like BMW X3 and Audi Q5. However, domestically, the hybrid version is priced starting at only 137,900 RMB. From the automaker's perspective, no matter how you calculate it, it's easier to make money from foreigners.

BYD: Laying out global factories, striving to become the "Future Buddha" of the car market.

As a rising star, if BYD only follows Chery's old path (channel layout), it would be impossible to catch up with the latter. In response, BYD provided a very "wealthy and powerful" development strategy. While carrying out self-operated overseas trade, it vigorously promotes global factory construction, clearly intending to "high-stakes" brand internationalization construction, becoming the "Future Buddha" among global automakers.

Currently, BYD Group's overseas sales volume is 792,000 units. Although the total volume is slightly lower than Chery, the growth rate also reached ±70%. Of course, compared with the total sales volume of up to 1.809 million units in the first half of the year, BYD's export proportion is still slightly lower.

In the future, as overseas factories in Hungary, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, etc., ramp up production capacity, BYD's sales and production potential in the overseas market will be further released. Furthermore, the profit per vehicle in the localized production model is also ±10% higher than export trade, and political risk is also lower.

Volkswagen: Positive growth in Europe and America, but cannot suppress the impact of China's plummet.

Finally, let's take a look at the long-standing automaker "number one" -- Volkswagen Group. It sold 4 million new cars globally in the first half of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 8.4%, of which pure electric vehicle deliveries were 438,500 units, a year-on-year decline of 5.8%. Financial reports show that the group's operating profit in the first half of the year was 5.931 billion euros, a year-on-year decline of 11.6%.

Specifically in each sub-market, Western Europe (+1.3%), Central and Eastern Europe (+9.6%), North America (+0.9%), South America (+5.2%) market deliveries all achieved positive growth. The fatal blow is the Chinese market. China's joint ventures (SAIC Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen) sold 856,000 units in the first half of the year, a significant year-on-year decline of 31.1%.

It is obvious that Volkswagen's weak growth in the European and American markets cannot completely suppress the decline of North and South Volkswagen in the Chinese market. Nowadays, Volkswagen cars in China not only cannot sell the ID. series electric vehicles, but also classic fuel car products like Passat, Magotan, and Tiguan, due to the fading brand value, are gradually not accepted by young people.

Written at the end:

With the strong push of the national new energy development strategy, Chinese cars have not only ushered in a rapid electrification transformation in the domestic market, but also triggered a dual rise of brand & product in the international market. It is not difficult to see from the general trend of international situation development that the Communist Party of China is leading the Chinese nation to return to the historical status it should have, and Chinese goods and Chinese culture carrying this halo are steadily moving towards the position of the global "number one" (except for football).