China Can Build a Million Cars, But Apparently Convincing Its Own People to Buy Them Is the Hard Part
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY | GLOBAL ECONOMY | OCTOBER 13, 2026 China's domestic car market is falling apart while its automobile exports are accelerating. Apparently, when your own customers stop buying what you're selling, the obvious solution is to find several billion other people who haven't learned to say no yet. There is something beautifully absurd about an economy that can manufacture automobiles at a breathtaking pace, develop electric vehicle technology that makes established manufacturers nervous, and send enormous shipments of cars across the planet, yet somehow struggles to convince the people living inside its own borders that buying another car is a particularly good idea. Welcome to China's automotive industry in 2026, where domestic sales are falling, exports are soaring, and the official economic strategy appears to be something along the lines of, "Have we tried selling these things to literally everybody else?" I'm fascinated by this situation...
