China’s auto exports surged 73% YoY to 990,000 units in December 2025, bringing the annual total to 8.32 million units with a 30% increase. Recently, the General Administration of Customs released import and export data for January to December 2025. The data shows that export trade in December reached 357.7 billion USD, growing by 5.5%, hitting the highest level this year. From January to December, exports totaled 3,776.5 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 5%. Annual Export Value and Growth Rate: 2021-2025 Among these, automobile exports performed exceptionally prominently. In December 2025, automobile exports reached 990,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 73%. From January to December, automobile exports totaled 8.32 million units, growing by 30% annually, with an export value of 142.4 billion USD, an increase of 21%. Of the total export volume of 8.32 million units, passenger vehicles dominated. According to statistics from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), from January to December 2025, passenger vehicle manufacturers exported 5.739 million units, a year-on-year increase of 19.7%. The proportion of new energy vehicle exports continued to rise, accounting for 46.4% of total exports in December, an increase of 15.6 percentage points year-on-year. Monthly Export Value Trend of Automobiles From the perspective of export value, China’s automobile export value has achieved leapfrog growth in recent years. It jumped from 34.5 billion USD in 2021 to 117.4 billion USD in 2024, and reached 142.4 billion USD in 2025 (a year-on-year increase of 21%), forming an explosive growth trend. Specifically, in terms of power type, pure electric passenger vehicles exported 36.4 billion USD for the full year of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 14%. Plug-in hybrid passenger vehicles exported 22.4 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 177%. Export Value Trend of Lithium-ion Batteries Interestingly, automobile parts exports and complete vehicle exports exhibit different market characteristics and growth patterns. For example, China’s automobile parts exports are mainly directed toward the U.S. market, while self-owned brand complete vehicle exports hardly go to the U.S. market. As supporting demand, automobile parts exports remained at a level of over 8 billion USD per month from March to August this year, and were still at a historically high level in December. Meanwhile, among the “new three major export items,” lithium-ion battery exports this year remained relatively stable at a monthly level of around 6 billion USD. From July to October, they rose to a level of 7.2 billion USD, indicating a slowdown in growth compared to last year.