China is set to become the world's largest automobile [importer / exporter] for the first time. In the first quarter of this year, China [surplus / surpassed] traditional car-making giants Japan and Germany for the first [timing / time] . Chinese manufacturers exported more than 1.06 million vehicles in the first [quarter / quarterly] of 2023. In [doing / done] so, they overtook Japan's number of 1.05 million. China's car industry has made great [walks / strides] in the [past / post] few years. Throughout the 2010s, it managed to produce around a million cars a year. That [twice / doubled] to two million in 2021 and then [tripled / triplet] to three million a year later. China is [forecast / cast] to more than quadruple production numbers from just four years ago to become the world's largest auto exporter.
China is becoming the world's largest manufacturer [by / of] electric vehicles (EVs). Elon Musk's Tesla has a [colossus / giant] "gigafactory" in China. It has a capacity [of / at] 1.25 million vehicles a year, but is yet to [breach / reach] maximum output. The plant exports a large [volume / sound] of Tesla cars to Canada, Europe and Japan. However, Tesla is about to lose its [crown / cap] as the world's largest EV maker to a Chinese company [called / name] BYD. Last month, BYD launched a [contact / compact] EV called Seagull, with a starting price of $11,000. The top three countries that China exports cars [from / to] are Russia, the United States and Mexico. Exports to Russia have been boosted by Western countries imposing trade sanctions [in / on] Moscow.
