Automobile IndustryChina > Market share of China at global automobile production

China’s role in world auto production since 2000 resp. 2007

Global auto production sinking without China by 0.7% p.a. since the world economic crisis until 2022

The significance of China for world automobile production has often been quoted. Less known is the fact that global automobile production without China shrunk by -0.7% p.a.  from 2007 before the world economic crisis up to 2022.

Update June 5th 2023 - Structural changes coin the course of the global industrial production since the year 2000. The time to overcome an economic crisis extended from three to six, seven years.


The worldwide automobile production, however, seems to be unaffected from this change. This is why its production had already exceeded the pre-crisis level of the two world economic crises from 2001 and 2008 after one year, as the following chart confirms.

Global automobile production and the market share of China from 2000 to 2022.

The chart also shows China’s market share at the global auto production. While the global automobile production grew by 45% from 2000 to 2022, China’s market share at the worldwide auto production exploded by the 9 fold.


This enormous dynamics of auto production in China particularly appeared in the last world economic crisis from 2008 to 2010. In this time China could almost duplicate its market share at the global automobile production from 12% (2007) to 23% (2010).


In order to make China’s impact on world auto production still clearer, we face automobile production in China with that of global automobile production without China.

Worldwide auto production growing since 2007 only with China

We differentiate the world auto production without China and with China as well as auto production in China itself. To make the contribution of each of these factors visible since the world economic crisis, we will set them equal to 100 for the year 2007.


The result is summarized:

  • In the fifteen years from 2007 to 2022 global auto production declined altogether by -9.9% without China, i.e. on the average yearly by -0.7%.

  • With China, however, global automobile production increased from 2007 to 2022 by a total of 16%, i.e. yearly by 1.0% p.a.


Auto production in China itself was tripled from 2007 to 2022.

Global auto produktion with and without China's auto production from 2007 to 2022.

Suddenly the structural change regarding a longer duration of crisis overcoming emerges again. Because global auto production without China could only exceed its pre-crisis level of 2007 (set to 100) in 2012, thus four years after crisis outbreak (100.9 index points).


The flat course of world automobile production without China since 2007 to 2019 indicates a stagnation with an average growth of yearly 0.2% within twelve years. From 2007 to 2022, the balance for 15 years is an average annual decline of 0.7% per year through 2022.


So the weal and woe of global automobile production, like the world economy altogether, depend on China’s economic development.