That dollar amount paid for overall international car exports reflects a 25.1% increase compared to $766.3 billion five years earlier in 2019.
Year over year, worldwide spending on exported cars accelerated by 21.5% starting from $789.1 billion during 2022.
In 2023, cars represented the world’s number 4 exported product as measured by sales in US dollars. International purchases for exported cars trailed crude oil, refined petroleum oils and electronic integrated circuits.
Cars accounted for 4.1% of overall international spending on all exported products, up from 3.2% for 2022.
World’s Biggest Exporters of Cars by Value
The 5 leading exporters of cars during 2023 were Germany, Japan, mainland China, South Korea and the United States of America. By value, that quintet of most lucrative automotive exporters generated over half (51.9%) of cars sold on international markets in 2023.
Applying a continental lens, European countries sold the highest dollar value worth of cars exported during 2023 with shipments totaling $485.2 billion or 50.6% of international car sales. In second place were suppliers in Asia at 31% followed by North American automobile exporters at 16.5%.
Tinier percentages came from shippers in Africa (1.2%), Latin America (0.6%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Oceania (0.04%) led by Australia.
For research purposes, the 4-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix for cars is 8703.
Car Exports by Country
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of cars in 2023.
- Germany: US$177.2 billion (18.5% of total exported cars)
- Japan: $110.9 billion (11.6%)
- mainland China: $77.7 billion (8.1%)
- South Korea: $68.3 billion (7.1%)
- United States: $63 billion (6.6%)
- Mexico: $57.3 billion (6%)
- Belgium: $43.1 billion (4.5%)
- Spain: $40.6 billion (4.2%)
- Canada: $37.9 billion (4%)
- United Kingdom: $36.9 billion (3.9%)
- Slovakia: $33.2 billion (3.5%)
- Czech Republic: $32 billion (3.3%)
- France: $24.7 billion (2.6%)
- Italy: $20.5 billion (2.1%)
- Hungary: $15.6 billion (1.6%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 87.5% of globally exported cars sold in 2023.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing exporters of cars since 2022 were: mainland China (up 73.8%), South Korea (up 32.1%), Canada (up 28.6%) and Hungary (up 28%).
Car exporters in the United States of America recorded the most modest increase, up 9% from 2022.
Countries Generating Biggest Surpluses from Global Trade of Cars
The following countries posted the highest positive net exports involving international car sales for 2023. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the surplus between the value of each country’s car exports and its import purchases for that same commodity.
- Germany: US$99.1 billion (net export surplus up 13.3% since 2022)
- Japan: $98.4 billion (up 28.5%)
- South Korea: $53.8 billion (up 42.8%)
- Mexico: $39.7 billion (up 10.4%)
- China: $31.7 billion (down -518.1%)
- Slovakia: $29.4 billion (up 26.6%)
- Czech Republic: $25.3 billion (up 26.7%)
- Spain: $17.1 billion (up 10.1%)
- Hungary: $11.6 billion (up 32.3%)
- Thailand: $7.4 billion (down -20.4%)
- India: $6 billion (down -3.1%)
- Indonesia: $4 billion (down -7.4%)
- Morocco: $3.9 billion (up 24.6%)
- Sweden: $3.8 billion (up 66.8%)
- Romania: $2.6 billion (down -2.8%)
Germany and Japan earn the highest surplus in the international trade of cars. In turn, this positive cashflow confirms both countries’ strong competitive advantages for this specific product category.
Countries Incurring Worst Deficits from Global Trade of Cars
The following countries posted the highest negative net exports for cars during 2023. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the deficit between the value of each country’s car import purchases and its exports for that same commodity.
- United States: -US$147.3 billion (net export deficit up 33.3% since 2022)
- Australia: -$24 billion (up 26.2%)
- France: -$21.7 billion (up 30%)
- United Kingdom: -$19.6 billion (up 31.3%)
- Italy: -$15.9 billion (up 70.5%)
- United Arab Emirates: -$15.7 billion (up 86.3%)
- Saudi Arabia: -$14.9 billion (up 6.6%)
- Russia: -$14.8 billion (up 149.7%)
- Switzerland: -$13.2 billion (up 27.1%)
- Netherlands: -$8.5 billion (up 46.9%)
- Poland: -$7.4 billion (up 28.9%)
- Taiwan: -$7 billion (up 26.3%)
- Türkiye: -$6.6 billion (down -584.5%)
- Israel: -$6.1 billion (down -7.6%)
- Norway: -$5.7 billion (down -34.2%)
The United States of America incurred the highest deficit in the international trade of cars. In turn, its negative cashflow confirms America’s competitive disadvantage for this specific product category but also signals opportunities for improvement.
Major Car Exporting Companies
According to Forbes Global 2000 rankings, the following car and truck producing companies are among the top 100 largest companies in the world.
- Toyota Motor (Japan)
- Volkswagen Group (Germany)
- Daimler (Germany)
- Ford Motor (United States)
- BMW Group (Germany)
- General Motors (United States)
- Honda Motor (Japan)
- Hyundai Motor (South Korea)
- Nissan Motor (Japan)
- SAIC Motor (China)
The above corporations are presented in the same order as they appear in the Forbes listing.
Searchable List of Car Exporting Countries in 2023
You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icon at the top of any of the columns below.
The right-most column shows the percentage change in the value of cars exported from each country in 2023 compared to 2022.
| Rank | Exporter | Exported Cars (US$) | 2022-3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Germany | $177,224,625,000 | +13.6% |
| 2. | Japan | $110,937,486,000 | +27.2% |
| 3. | mainland China | $77,659,214,000 | +73.8% |
| 4. | South Korea | $68,260,793,000 | +32.1% |
| 5. | United States | $63,034,756,000 | +9% |
| 6. | Mexico | $57,333,805,000 | +22.2% |
| 7. | Belgium | $43,083,479,000 | +27.1% |
| 8. | Spain | $40,610,683,000 | +23.4% |
| 9. | Canada | $37,875,190,000 | +28.6% |
| 10. | United Kingdom | $36,935,455,000 | +25.3% |
| 11. | Slovakia | $33,169,759,000 | +26.7% |
| 12. | Czech Republic | $31,975,370,000 | +26.9% |
| 13. | France | $24,650,394,000 | +18.7% |
| 14. | Italy | $20,505,330,000 | +26.1% |
| 15. | Hungary | $15,588,530,000 | +28% |
| 16. | Sweden | $15,192,769,000 | +26% |
| 17. | Thailand | $11,776,338,000 | +6.4% |
| 18. | Türkiye | $11,546,117,000 | +23.5% |
| 19. | Austria | $8,925,625,000 | +12.3% |
| 20. | Poland | $7,648,280,000 | +33.1% |
| 21. | Romania | $6,909,091,000 | +12.1% |
| 22. | India | $6,724,692,000 | +2.1% |
| 23. | Netherlands | $6,674,769,000 | +17.8% |
| 24. | Morocco | $6,396,539,000 | +21.9% |
| 25. | Indonesia | $6,066,930,000 | +9.4% |
| 26. | South Africa | $5,407,083,000 | -6.8% |
| 27. | Portugal | $4,339,788,000 | +2.7% |
| 28. | Brazil | $4,167,250,000 | -10.1% |
| 29. | Slovenia | $2,648,708,000 | +5.5% |
| 30. | Denmark | $2,185,153,000 | +21% |
| 31. | Argentina | $1,493,942,000 | +16.9% |
| 32. | Finland | $1,290,828,000 | -46.8% |
| 33. | Lithuania | $1,274,010,000 | +12.1% |
| 34. | Estonia | $971,221,000 | +53% |
| 35. | Taiwan | $917,611,000 | -6.8% |
| 36. | Luxembourg | $812,545,000 | +17.2% |
| 37. | Switzerland | $726,684,000 | +6.6% |
| 38. | Norway | $499,702,000 | +198.8% |
| 39. | Armenia | $454,871,000 | +81% |
| 40. | Hong Kong | $441,583,000 | -9.9% |
| 41. | Malaysia | $421,179,000 | -17.5% |
| 42. | Singapore | $392,238,000 | +27.7% |
| 43. | United Arab Emirates | $368,995,000 | -95.8% |
| 44. | Latvia | $347,277,000 | +8.2% |
| 45. | Kazakhstan | $263,015,000 | -19.1% |
| 46. | Colombia | $261,342,000 | +34.6% |
| 47. | Viet Nam | $237,185,000 | +7.8% |
| 48. | Croatia | $234,774,000 | +34.5% |
| 49. | Bulgaria | $219,852,000 | +15.8% |
| 50. | Australia | $204,858,000 | -10.5% |
| 51. | Russia | $171,705,000 | -55.6% |
| 52. | Azerbaijan | $164,690,000 | +334.3% |
| 53. | Serbia | $151,258,000 | -21.2% |
| 54. | Tokelau | $146,935,000 | -55.7% |
| 55. | Chile | $123,980,000 | +43.5% |
| 56. | Kyrgyzstan | $69,628,000 | +195.6% |
| 57. | Greece | $60,358,000 | +20.6% |
| 58. | Ireland | $36,695,000 | -18.6% |
| 59. | Andorra | $34,265,000 | +35.4% |
| 60. | Philippines | $32,957,000 | +43.9% |
| 61. | Moldova | $29,549,000 | -58.8% |
| 62. | Panama | $28,508,000 | -0.4% |
| 63. | Ukraine | $27,854,000 | -36.2% |
| 64. | Iran | $21,624,000 | +77.2% |
| 65. | Guatemala | $21,602,000 | +91.3% |
| 66. | Israel | $20,810,000 | +29.2% |
| 67. | Tanzania | $19,354,000 | +119.2% |
| 68. | Mongolia | $19,286,000 | +389.6% |
| 69. | Gibraltar | $15,967,000 | -20.7% |
| 70. | Tunisia | $13,609,000 | +4.6% |
| 71. | Cyprus | $12,541,000 | +0.1% |
| 72. | Jordan | $12,300,000 | -82% |
| 73. | Qatar | $11,624,000 | -96% |
| 74. | Saudi Arabia | $10,580,000 | -99% |
| 75. | Cambodia | $8,860,000 | +168.4% |
| 76. | Uzbekistan | $8,359,000 | +10.5% |
| 77. | US Minor Outlying Is | $7,796,000 | +1462% |
| 78. | Bosnia/Herzegovina | $7,719,000 | -34.8% |
| 79. | Ghana | $6,618,000 | -37.8% |
| 80. | North Korea | $6,369,000 | -64.9% |
| 81. | Namibia | $6,146,000 | -5.1% |
| 82. | Egypt | $5,995,000 | +248.5% |
| 83. | Bahrain | $5,480,000 | -95.9% |
| 84. | Belarus | $5,479,000 | -11.3% |
| 85. | Botswana | $5,417,000 | -22.9% |
| 86. | Kenya | $4,946,000 | -52.7% |
| 87. | New Zealand | $4,868,000 | -23.9% |
| 88. | Zambia | $4,667,000 | +220.1% |
| 89. | Kuwait | $4,639,000 | -99.1% |
| 90. | Jamaica | $4,611,000 | +710.4% |
| 91. | Peru | $4,212,000 | +38.6% |
| 92. | Macao | $4,091,000 | +26.6% |
| 93. | Senegal | $3,431,000 | -36.3% |
| 94. | Faroe Islands | $3,408,000 | +1.2% |
| 95. | Lebanon | $3,362,000 | -83.1% |
| 96. | Georgia | $3,308,000 | +318.2% |
| 97. | Côte d'Ivoire | $3,295,000 | +88.7% |
| 98. | Gabon | $3,117,000 | +80.5% |
| 99. | Iceland | $3,045,000 | +43.2% |
| 100. | North Macedonia | $2,898,000 | +81.1% |
Expanding the scope to the 100 biggest car exporters, the fastest-growing exporters of cars were relatively smaller automobile suppliers United States Minor Outlying Islands (up 1,462% from 2022), Jamaica (up 710.4%), Mongolia (up 389.6%), Azerbaijan (up 334.3%), Georgia (up 318.2%) then Egypt (up 248.5%).
Posting the severest declines in their exported cars sales were Kuwait (down -99.1% from 2022), Saudi Arabia (down -99%), Qatar (down -96%), Bahrain (down -95.9%) and the United Arab Emirates (down -95.8%).
Average Unit Prices for Exported Cars from Selected Countries
Below, you will find the average dollar value for each car exported from selected countries.
Only included are countries that report their respective average unit prices per exported car by weight, typically tons.
- Georgia: US$68,917 per ton (up 228.2% from 2022)
- Brunei Darussalam: $35,600 per exported car (down -27%)
- Philippines: $34,046 per exported car (up 494.2%)
- Cambodia: $32,574 per exported car (down -60.9%)
- Azerbaijan: $29,341 per exported car (up 19.5%)
- Cyprus: $29,030 per exported car (down -35.5%)
- Moldova: $28,661 per exported car (up 4.2%)
- Ukraine: $28,192 per exported car (up 34.5%)
- Andorra: $27,259 per exported car (up 53.6%)
- Iraq: $27,000 per exported car (up 200%)
The average price per ton for cars exported from the above countries is $34,062.
See also Electric Cars Exports by Country, US Exported & Imported Cars by State and Car Imports by Country
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on June 25, 2024
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on June 25, 2024
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on June 25, 2024
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on June 25, 2024
Wikipedia, Car. Accessed on June 25, 2024