In a bid to tap opportunities in the EV market, Thailand’s local manufacturers are looking forward to partnering with the Chinese firms, mainly focusing on EVs.
Th recent example is the leading Thai automaker Siam Motors, which is in talks with several Chinese automakers, particularly for high-end electric vehicles. Vice President Sebastien Dupuy revealed this in an interview. “EVs will be a nice pocket of growth,” he said. “There is a market growing for that, and we want to capture the growth.”
The Thai family-owned group has grown annual revenues to US$7 Bn. It may be noted that Siam Motors partnered with Nissan Motors in 1962 with a factory that rolled out four cars a day, transforming it from a car dealer to an automotive pioneer.
Moreover ,the Chinese firms have already begun to reshape Thailand’s auto industry, with EV manufacturers from China bring in their suppliers and local Thai firms, like Siam Motors, are also looking forward for new partnerships with Chinese firms.
Chinese firms have been reported to invest worth US$1.44 billion since 2020 – including by BYD and Great Wall Motor.
Thailand is Southeast Asia’s largest car producer and exporter, and is the second-largest sales market after Indonesia. As per reports, China overshadowed Japan as Thailand’s top foreign investor last year, which was boosted by BYD’s investment in a new plant set to start up in 2024, with support from the government to attract Chinese EV producers.
Furthermore, Thailand’s government has rolled out incentives and courted Chinese firms to achieve a target of converting about 30% of the country’s annual vehicle production into EVs by 2030.
