Bottom line: the closest available full-year count for 2025 puts China’s used-car exports at 600,000 units, up 37.6% — a record, by a third-party research scope (published 2026-05-10). The official association series had not published its own 2025 full-year figure as of our 2026-09-05 check; the best official-adjacent interim mark is the industry count for January–August 2025: more than 400,000 units, with used-NEVs above 30% of the flow for the first time. Every number below carries its scope, and the scopes are never mixed.
Reporting period vs published date
A recurring error in used-car-export coverage is treating a publication date as a data period. This report keeps the two apart:
| Data period | Figure | Scope | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025, full year | 600,000 units, +37.6% | Third-party research (Huaon Industry Research Institute) | 2026-05-10 |
| 2025, Jan–Aug | More than 400,000 units; used-NEV above 30% of flow for the first time | Industry count reported by CLS (CADA-sourced context) | 2025-11-14 |
| 2025, full year | Not yet published as of 2026-09-05 | Association series (CADA/SUCCA) — the scope behind the 2024 baseline | — |
| 2024, full year (baseline) | 436,000 units, +46.5% | Association (SUCCA/CADA reporting) | 2025 |
The 2024 baseline, in its own scope
The association series — the one this site tracks as its baseline — recorded 436,000 used vehicles exported in 2024, up 46.5% year on year, with declared value of US$9.21 billion, up 23.3%, across more than 160 countries and regions. The series implies an average declared value of ≈US$21,126 per unit (derived 2026-09-05: US$9.21 billion ÷ 436,000). The trade’s visible core sits in the RMB 200,000–500,000 near-new band, which is why our Model Watch comparisons concentrate there.
A second, narrower series exists: the used-car export branch of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce’s auto dealers chamber (SUCCA export branch), quoted at its July 2025 industry forum. Its 2024 reading is 410,216 units, up 49.4%, worth US$8.532 billion, up 24% — an average of ≈US$20,799 per unit (derived 2026-09-05). The branch series and the association series differ by design; neither may be spliced into the other’s trend line.
Within the branch series, the vehicle mix reads 94.7% passenger cars and 5.3% commercial vehicles; used-NEVs came to 139,671 units — roughly one in three of the branch total. Both readings describe 2024; neither is a 2025 figure.
In the association reading, used-NEV exports grew about +196% in 2024 — the fastest slice of the trade, and the feedstock of the near-zero-kilometre export phenomenon.
2025: what the available series say
The full-year third-party count. Huaon Industry Research Institute puts 2025 exports at 600,000 units, up 37.6%, calling it a record high and naming Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa as the main destination regions, with 2–3-year-old near-new gasoline cars and quality EVs as the mainstay. Note the arithmetic inside that figure: 600,000 against the association’s 436,000 baseline computes to exactly +37.6%, so the publisher benchmarked against the association series while extending it with its own count. We report the pair as published — third-party figure, association base — without merging the scopes into a single line.
The official-adjacent interim mark. Industry reporting carried by CLS in November 2025 gave January–August 2025 exports of more than 400,000 units, with used-NEVs exceeding 30% of the flow for the first time, and projected a full-year landing of 500,000–600,000. The third-party full-year count of 600,000 lands at the top of that band; the association’s own full-year release remains the number to wait for.
Early-year context. For scale: the pilot trade moved under 3,000 units in 2019 and 4,300 in 2020 (association scope). The 2025 story is therefore not growth-from-nothing but the first year of managed consolidation of a trade that had already scaled.
The policy year that shaped 2025
Two Chinese measures bracket the year. On 2025-09-26, four departments announced that pure-electric passenger cars would fall under export-licence management from 2026-01-01. On 2025-11-14, MOFCOM, MIIT, the Ministry of Public Security and the General Administration of Customs issued the notice on strengthening used-car export management: from 2026-01-01, any vehicle registered less than 180 days before the export application needs a manufacturer-issued after-sales service confirmation to obtain a licence. Both target the “zero-kilometre” trade — nearly-new cars pushed through used-car channels — that Chinese leadership spent 2025 criticising, with MOFCOM publicly steering the trade from scale growth toward “value growth”.
Destination-side policy cut just as hard: Russia’s utilization-fee escalation and import restrictions crashed the largest effective market, redirecting volume toward the Gulf, Central Asia and Africa — the regional mechanics are covered in our destination-markets report.
Context series, kept separate
Domestic trade (association scope, CADA): China’s domestic used-car market transacted 20.108 million units in 2025, up 2.52%, worth about RMB 1.29 trillion. This is the domestic pool the export trade draws from — a context series, never added to export figures.
Inside that domestic pool, used-NEV transactions reached 1.6 million units for full-year 2025 (association scope) — context for the export trade’s NEV intensity, and a different series from any export figure on this page.
Whole-vehicle exports (customs scope): China exported 8.32 million vehicles of all kinds in 2025, up about 30%. Used cars are a slice of that flow under a separate statistical heading; the two series are never added together on this site.
Methodology and scope notes
- Association scope (CADA/SUCCA): the 2024 baseline (436,000 units, US$9.21bn) and domestic-market figures. Historical releases keep their original state; new data becomes a new dated report, not an edit of past tables.
- SUCCA export-branch scope: the 410,216-unit 2024 reading and its composition, quoted from the July 2025 forum. Not interchangeable with the association series.
- Third-party scope (Huaon): the 2025 full-year count of 600,000 units. Its +37.6% growth rate is computed against the association baseline by the publisher and is labelled as such.
- Industry interim count (CLS-reported): January–August 2025. Period and publication date are stated separately above.
- Derived metrics on this page (per-unit averages) are computed from the cited totals and marked “derived” with the computation date.
What to watch next
- The association’s own 2025 full-year release — a new data point in the association scope, to be reported separately from the third-party 600,000 line.
- Licence data under the 2026 rules — the 180-day confirmation and BEV licensing should visibly reshape the near-new flow from Q1 2026.
- Whether the destination mix keeps rotating toward the Gulf and Africa as the Russia corridor stays hostile — tracked in the destination report.
- Used-NEV share above the 30% mark — the structural story of the trade, regulation included.
Sources and grading
- Huaon Industry Research Institute (华经产业研究院), third-party full-year 2025 count, published 2026-05-10: https://www.huaon.com/channel/trend/1163242.html — grade B (industry research). Accessed 2026-09-05.
- CLS (财联社)， industry interim count and 2025 policy reporting, published 2025-11-14: https://www.cls.cn/detail/2201355 — grade B (financial media). Accessed 2026-09-05.
- CADCC (SUCCA auto dealers chamber), used-car export forum of 2025-07-10 (article dated 2025-07-16), branch-series 2024 data: https://www.cadcc.com.cn/article/2365.html — grade B (industry association). Accessed 2026-09-05.
- People’s Daily Overseas Edition, “Used-car exports move toward value growth”, 2025-11-22, with MOFCOM statements: https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/pc/content/202511/22/content_30116267.html — grade S (state media of record). Accessed 2026-09-05.
- MOFCOM policy notice (with MIIT, MPS and GACC), used-car export management, effective 2026-01-01: https://policy.mofcom.gov.cn/claw/clawContent.shtml?id=104081 — grade S (ministry). Accessed 2026-09-05.
- CADA, December 2025 used-car market brief (published 2026-01-27), domestic-series 2025 data: https://www.cada.cn/Data/info_86_10432.html — grade B (industry association). Accessed 2026-09-05.
- 21jingji, used-NEV growth and trade-structure reporting, 2025-08-27: https://www.21jingji.com/article/20250827/herald/23dc754ae2d4d829814ac29394ab399b.html — grade B. Accessed 2026-09-05.
Last verified 2026-09-05. Historical reports keep their original state under this site’s data policy; updates arrive as new dated entries.