China remained the European Union's largest source of imported cars by value for the third consecutive year in 2024.

Autos worth EUR12.7 billion (USD13.9 billion) were imported from China to the EU last year, according to data released by Eurostat on April 1. Japan ranked second with EUR12.3 billion, followed by the United Kingdom with EUR11 billion, Türkiye with EUR9.1 billion (USD9.9 billion), and the United States with EUR8.4 billion.

China became the EU's largest vehicle import source by value in 2022, with EUR9.4 billion. In 2023, the country exported 706,976 cars worth EUR12.9 billion to the EU.

"From 2019 to 2024, the EU experienced the most significant rise in car imports from China, with an increase of 1,591 percent," Eurostat noted. “On the other hand, imports from the UK saw the largest decline, falling 17 percent.”

Last October, the EU levied additional tariffs on China-made electric vehicle imports after an anti-subsidy investigation. For example, the tariffs subject BYD's autos to an extra 17 percent tax, Geely Automobile's to 18.8 percent, and SAIC Motor's to 35.3 percent, while US EV giant Tesla's China-made vehicles have the lowest ratio of 7.8 percent.

The Eurostat data show a reversed trend in EU-China vehicle trade relations. The EU was China's biggest passenger car import source in 2021, accounting for over half of China's total car imports by value. Afterward, EU exports to China began to decline, falling a cumulative 22 percent to EUR14.5 billion in the past six years.

China's car exports climbed 19 percent to 5.86 million vehicles last year from the previous one, making the country the world's largest auto exporter, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. However, the growth rate slowed down from 101 percent in 2023, 54 percent in 2022, and 58 percent in 2021.