Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
China drives to the top
Automotive | China | Electric vehicles
September 23, 2025 – China has rapidly become the world’s largest car exporter, fueled in part by a surge in electric vehicle (EV) sales, positioning China as a key global player. In 2019, the country exported 0.7 million cars, but by 2024, that number had risen to 5.5 million, surpassing Japan, Mexico, and Germany, Senior Partner Daniel Zipser and colleagues note. EVs composed nearly 40 percent of China’s passenger vehicle exports in 2024 and nearly half in the first half of 2025.
To read the article, see “Mid-year update: Five surprises from China’s consumer market,” August 13, 2025.
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Visual form
Two-panel chart combining a line chart with a treemap.
Layout / body structure
The chart is laid out left to right. The left panel is a multi-series line chart of global car exports by region, and the right panel is a treemap showing 2024 car exports from China by OEM.
What is being compared
The left side compares export volumes for China, Japan, Mexico, Germany, South Korea, and the United States over time, while the right side compares how China’s 2024 export total is divided among individual automakers and the catch-all other category.
Measurement system
Both panels use million units. The line chart tracks exports from 2019 to 2025 across the horizontal axis, while the treemap labels each rectangle with the export volume contributed by that OEM. Color separates countries in the line chart and different blocks in the treemap.
Visible structure inside the graphic
On the left, six colored lines run from 2019 to 2025, with China’s magenta line climbing sharply from the bottom of the pack to the top. Japan trends down slightly, Mexico and Germany stay clustered around the mid-threes, South Korea is flatter near 2.5, and the U.S. slopes down under 1. On the right, the treemap splits China’s 5.5 million exports into Chery, SAIC, Geely Auto, BYD, Great Wall Motor, and a large Other block.
Main takeaway from the visual
The chart makes China’s jump visually unmistakable: its line crosses past every other exporter by the end of the time series, and the treemap then shows that the export base is not driven by one manufacturer alone but by several named OEMs plus a very large other bucket.
Key standout values or extremes
China rises from about 0.7 million exports in 2019 to 5.5 million in 2024, overtaking Japan at roughly 4.2 million. In the OEM treemap, Other is the largest block at 2.7 million, while Chery is the largest named OEM at 1.1 million and SAIC contributes 0.5 million.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.