BEIJING — For more than a decade, automakers around the world have been nervously awaiting the day when China would start exporting sizable numbers of cars to the West. Now it seems they were worried about the wrong threat.
China is shipping just a few thousand cars a year to the European Union and virtually none to the United States. But China’s exports to emerging markets are surging as its own auto market slows and its automakers keep pouring billions into new factories. Roads in countries like Algeria, Brazil, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa are increasingly dotted with cars from manufacturers like Geely, Great Wall Motors and Chery.