"In the first half of this year, Anhui's vehicle exports have already surpassed one million units — five months ahead of last year's pace," said Jiang Kaiyuan, Deputy Director of Hefei Customs.

Last year, Anhui became the first province in China to see its annual vehicle exports break the one-million mark.

This year, it took Anhui just six months to reach that same milestone, with exports hitting 1.006 million vehicles — up 120% year on year.

Beyond the growth in volume, the push to build homegrown brands overseas is also gathering pace.

In the first half of the year, Anhui exported 892,000 vehicles under domestic brands, an increase of 110%, worth 93.87 billion yuan, up 110% in value as well. Both the growth rate in export volume and export value climbed 99.7 and 95.9 percentage points respectively compared with the same period last year.

Looking at where these vehicles are headed, emerging markets are expanding fast.

In the first half of the year, Anhui exported 192,000 vehicles to Latin America, up 82.5% year on year — of which 82,000 went to Brazil alone, a jump of 140%.

Demand has also been running strong in Russia, the UK and Italy, where exports rose 190%, 240% and 230% respectively.

Reaching a million vehicles exported isn't down to luck. A solid industrial base is the foundation, but the logistics and services behind it matter just as much.

May 2, Jiujiang District, Wuhu City: at the Zhujiaqiao Port Area of Wuhu Port, operated by Anhui Port Group, rows of Chery-brand vehicles sit ready and waiting on the cargo yard, prepared for shipment overseas. (Photo: Wang Yushi, Tao Hongxia)

According to reports, Hefei Customs has rolled out a coordinated "split-container shipping" oversight model for bulk-exported new energy vehicles. Under this model, lithium batteries removed from the vehicles are inspected and packaged for certification right where the cars are assembled, then shipped out directly — cutting roughly seven days off the export cycle for a single batch of new energy vehicles.

At the same time, to meet the varied logistics needs of auto exporters, customs has broadly rolled out new models such as water-to-water transshipment under multimodal transport, coordinated unloading, and direct loading and pickup. Inland river ports like Wuhu Port and Hefei's Paihe River Port are now treated as extensions of coastal ports such as Shanghai, eliminating the need for customs transfer declarations and secondary arrival procedures, and cutting time spent in port by 90%. Efforts have also gone into optimizing the westbound rail corridor, with 69 dedicated China-Europe (China-Central Asia) freight trains arranged for vehicle exports. This has been paired with a "rail fast clearance" oversight model, moving cargo inspection from the exit port to the point of origin, further speeding up port clearance.