People visit the 2024 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Shunyi District, Beijing, capital of China, April 25, 2024. The exhibition opened here on Thursday and will last till May 4. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)
BEIJING, April 28 (Xinhua) -- The 2024 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, an A-list event continuing through May 4, has attracted many foreign media representatives and dealers to experience China-developed cars and seek cooperation opportunities through communications.
On the first day of the event, Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors (GWM), a Chinese auto brand, received a special guest, Oliver Zipse, chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, at the exhibition booth of GWM. During the meeting, Wei introduced self-developed technologies of GWM, while Zipse showed deep interest in GWM's Tank models.
"China is the largest auto market in the world with the most fierce competition," said Zipse.
In recent years, "going global" and "globalization" have been key words for the development of Chinese auto brands.
Zipse said that Europe's most imports of electric vehicles (EV) come from whole-vehicle factory operated in China, such as BMW. In this sense, BMW can be seen as a Chinese company, which exports Chinese products to Europe.
Data from China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) showed that China's auto exports stood at 5.22 million vehicles in 2023,making it the world's largest auto exporter. This figure also marks another significant increase after the country exported 3.11 million vehicles in 2022 and 2.02 million in 2021.
China's automobile exports jumped 33.2 percent year on year to reach 1.32 million units in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
"More and more Chinese cars are exported to overseas market, garnering much attention and popularity from global consumers," said a dealer from Sri Lanka.
Another European guest said that Chinese car brand is growing rapidly and the emerging technologies are shaping global auto industry.
Many other participants also believe that the development of Chinese auto brands propels industrial technology upgrade and better meets the needs of global market.
(Edited by Li Shimeng with Xinhua Silk Road, lishimeng@xinhua.org)
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