Hyundai may already have electric vehicle assembly plants in Indonesia and Singapore, but evidently it won’t stop until it has conquered all of Southeast Asia. To that end, the Korean carmaker has received approval for its planned investment totalling 1 billion baht (RM126 million) into the assembly of EVs and batteries in Thailand, the country’s board of investment (BOI) said today.
The company will build cars in partnership with the Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant in Samut Prakan, just south of Bangkok; the facility already assembles Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Toyota and Nissan also have factories in Samut Prakan.
The Hyundai investment is part of the second phase of the Land of Smile’s goal of becoming an EV production hub. The project, known as EV 3.5, runs from 2024 to 2027 and aims to promote manufacturing investment across the entire EV ecosystem, including cars, batteries, components and even charging stations. The package offers incentives for manufacturers and EV subsidies to customers.
All this is in service of the country’s goal for EVs to make up at least 30% of its total automotive production by 2030. The BOI says that so far, 18 carmakers from China, Japan and Europe have either started building EVs in Thailand or announced they will begin building them over the next two years. The board has already approved investments worth a total of 80 billion baht (RM10 billion) in the EV supply chain.
“Hyundai’s entry in Thailand’s EV sector is a very positive development, confirming the attractiveness of Thailand as both a manufacturing base and an important market,” said BOI secretary general Narit Therdsteerasukdi. “Thailand’s strong existing supply chain will allow Hyundai to source not less than a third of the raw materials and parts it needs from within Thailand, thus supporting the local industry.”
That last part is important because, as the country is finding out, some carmakers – particularly those from China – just aren’t interested in sourcing parts locally despite assembling their cars there. This has led to at least a dozen of parts makers closing down – a situation made worse by falling sales of petrol- and diesel-powered cars, squeezed by the influx of subsidised EVs.
Bangkok Post reports that Thailand accounted for 55% of all EV sales in ASEAN in the first quarter of this year, according to Counterpoint Research.
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