Though Chinese carmakers have made significant progress in exporting their products, there are still many challenges that need to be addressed in order for them to enter the high-end market overseas. This was the consensus of the guests participating in the first-ever Auto Shanghai 2023 forum on Tuesday.

"Car factories in China are not only building products for overseas brands but also designing new cars with a global market in mind," said Gu Chunting, vice president of the Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai (CPIT Shanghai), one of the organizers of Auto Shanghai 2023. "This is a display of the strength of China's auto supply chain."

From January to March, nearly one million vehicles were exported from China, achieving a 70.6 percent increase compared to the previous year. Of these, 248,000 are new energy vehicles, 110 percent more than in 2022.

"China is already the biggest carmaker and the biggest car market in the world," said Zhang Guohua, deputy head of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

According to Zhang, there are three new trends in China’s vehicle export: more high-end products, globalization of industrial chain, and an increase in new energy vehicles.

"Take Shanghai as an example," Zhang told the forum. "The main destination of Shanghai-made cars used to be countries like Iran, Algeria and Chile. There were only a few models sold at low prices."

"Now more orders are flying in month after month from more than 30 countries with the average price rising from 80,000 yuan ($11,600) to 180,000 yuan ($26,100)," he added.

With all that said, Chinese carmakers are faced with new challenges from overseas markets.

Zhang highlighted the fact that different countries have different standards for imported cars, as well as policies that protect their local brands.

"The shipping price has been high for quite some time, especially for the roll-on and roll-off ships that is critical for carmakers," Zhang said. "The companies are worried about late deliveries."

Chen Hong from CPIT Shanghai noted that localized services are as important as production and sales, as vehicles have long lifecycles.

"We have been providing online services for global users for many years," said Yao Zhen, general manager of Tencent Smart Transportation Solutions. He said Tencent's products can help carmakers solve the problem of localized services, integrating services in all regions into a unified cloud system.

Yao noted that most Chinese carmakers have separated their domestic cloud services from the global ones, which could introduce complexity into the company's management.

Such services are not only available from Tencent but also from other internet giants like Baidu and Huawei, which are also promoting their services for carmakers.