Thailand’s ambition in wanting to become the regional electric vehicle production hub has seen it put all the eggs into one basket over the past couple of years, pushing the fully-electric agenda seemingly at the expense of everything else, including hybrids.
The chosen path probably hasn’t panned out as smoothly as it has hoped, given the way how things have reportedly shaped up in recent times. With vehicle manufacturing stuttering and parts vendors being affected as a result of that, the government looks to be opening another basket for, well, new eggs, in the hope that it will bring things back to where it was.
This comes in the form of investment incentives for manufacturers of hybrid vehicles, as the Bangkok Post reports. Announced last Friday by the country’s board of investment (BOI), the move will see excise taxes for hybrids being lowered for five years, from 2028 to 2032.
Excise taxes will be lowered for hybrid vehicles makers that invest at least three billion baht (RM385.3 million)in the next four years and include the use of local parts, the BOI said. Vehicles will also need to have advanced driver assistance systems to qualify.
The board’s secretary-general Narit Therdsteerasukdi said hybrid vehicles were an important step in the transition to EVs. “Thailand has the capacity to be a key producer of hybrid vehicles, and supporting hybrid production will preserve auto parts manufacturing,” he said.
That statement indirectly acknowledges the difficulties being faced not just by traditional automakers that have set up assembly plants in the country but also by auto parts producers that supply them, largely as a result of subsidies for Chinese EV makers, which has seen a flood of products enter the market, resulting in a price war.
Introducing the new measures for hybrids, which is expected to draw in 50 billion baht (RM6.43 billion) worth of investments, will not just preserve businesses but also jobs. Thailand’s automotive sector employs more than 750,000 workers and accounts for about 11% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), making it the fourth-largest contributor to the economy.
According to Narit, seven automakers are currently receiving benefits from incentives offered by the BOI, four from Japan and three from China.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Content Disclaimer and Copyright Notice
Content Disclaimer
The content provided on this website is sourced from various RSS feeds and other publicly available sources. We strive to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information, and we always provide source links to the original content. However, we are not responsible for the content’s accuracy or any changes made to the original sources after the information is aggregated on our site.
Fair Use and Copyright Notice
This website may contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
