China surpassed Japan as the world's largest source of cars last year, thanks to its fleet of electric vehicle manufacturers, according to data released Wednesday by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA).

According to Agence France-Presse, Japanese companies exported 4.42 million cars, trucks, and buses in 2023 (a 16% increase). In contrast, Chinese car exports reached 4.91 million units last year (a 57.9% increase), according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), and 5.22 million units according to Chinese customs data (a 57% increase), according to data released earlier this month.

Japan had been the world's largest exporter of cars since 2017. However, China's lead over Japan remains relative as Japanese companies produce twice as many vehicles in their overseas factories (17 million units in 2022) compared to those produced in the Japanese archipelago, whereas Chinese companies have only a few factories overseas.