BANGKOK — China’s Great Wall Motor Co. is finalizing plans to speculate as much as $30 million to arrange a brand new battery pack meeting plant in Thailand, the place it would begin making a compact electrical automobile subsequent yr, in keeping with an organization official.
The Hebei-based firm can be contemplating establishing a analysis and improvement middle in Thailand that might work on battery powered pickup vehicles, Narong Sritalayon, managing director of Great Wall Motor Thailand, mentioned in an interview.
The automaker has 10 comparable improvement hubs globally that concentrate on different applied sciences. Investment in Thailand, which goals to develop into a regional electrical automobile manufacturing middle, would rely partially on authorities subsidies, Narong added.
Although China’s Great Wall and BYD Co. have made massive investments in Thailand, Japanese automakers together with Toyota Motor Corp. and Isuzu Motors dominate the nation’s auto market, with pickup vehicles accounting for greater than half of gross sales final yr.
“There is a lot of things we can learn from Thailand’s unique market for pickup trucks,” Narong mentioned.
Thailand, the world’s tenth-largest auto manufacturing economic system, goals to make use of tax cuts and subsidies to assist convert about 30 % of the nation’s annual manufacturing of two.5 million automobiles into EVs by 2030, in keeping with a authorities plan.
Great Wall launched its Ora Good Cat compact EV in Thailand in late 2021. It turned the nation’s top-selling EV final yr, with the most cost effective variant listed on Great Wall’s web site priced at 828,500 Thai baht ($24,475) after a authorities subsidy of 230,500 baht.
Great Wall entered Thailand in 2020 after taking up a former General Motors plant that presently makes two of its Haval hybrid automobiles on the market within the nation.
It plans to start manufacturing of the Ora Good Cat in Thailand subsequent yr and can look to supply extra parts domestically, together with battery packs, to satisfy necessities underneath the federal government’s incentive progam for carmakers, Narong mentioned.
A pack meeting facility might require an funding of between 500 million to 1 billion Thai baht, with the precise measurement relying on a plan anticipated to be finalized inside the subsequent six months, Narong mentioned.
SVOLT Energy Technology, a Great Wall subsidiary that has been increasing its presence in different markets like Europe, will produce battery meeting packs in Thailand within the preliminary part, the corporate mentioned.
But the ability might be upgraded for battery cell manufacturing with extra funding relying on demand and Thai authorities help, Great Wall added.
“We may become a contract manufacturer of batteries to other (automakers) as well,” Narong mentioned. “That would also scale up the capacity of the battery plant.”
China’s CATL gives a 63.1 kilowatt hour battery pack for the Ora Good Cat 500 Ultra variant imported into Thailand, however Great Wall mentioned it had no present plans to buy batteries from CATL for upcoming native manufacturing.
Thailand is in talks with CATL – the world’s dominant battery provider with a 37 % market share — and different battery makers to construct manufacturing services in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economic system.
Source: www.autonews.com