(Yicai) Oct. 27 -- China may export as many as five million vehicles this year because of the exponential growth in overseas demand for Chinese cars, according to the vice president of Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor.

Overseas sales of Chinese car manufacturers are rising because they have entered new markets, introduced best-selling models to specific segments of overseas markets, and improved their operational efficiency in foreign markets to achieve sales volume breakthroughs, Shi Qingke told Yicai.

China’s auto exports soared 60 percent to 3.7 million units in the first nine months of the year from a year earlier, exceeding last year’s total of 3.4 million units, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed. Chinese annual car exports exceeded the threshold of two million units for the first time in 2021.

“The key of Chinese automakers’ market planning is developing and expanding their presence in new markets and carrying out strategic investments in key core markets,” said Shi, who is also the overseas business head at Great Wall Motor. “Once a company has picked an overseas market, it has to build a local factory and achieve complete knock-down to make a foray into the market as soon as possible.

“Building a new plant takes around 24 months in China but about three years overseas because of various types of local policy obstacles,” Shi noted.

Firms also need to invest great amounts of money to build plants overseas, which creates troubles in achieving short-term profitability, Shi pointed out. “Therefore, carmakers need to reserve significant resources in the early stage, as well as to take moves such as signing long-term strategic partnerships with local transport service partners and cut costs as much as possible when negotiating.”

Great Wall Motor’s efforts to expand overseas have paid off, according to Shi. The automaker is expected to sell 300,000 units abroad this year, compared with 172,000 units last year.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione