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The government of Thailand has announced a roadmap to make the
country a hub of electrified vehicles in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region in five years, reports the
Bangkok Post. Under the roadmap, the government plans to
promote electric vehicles (EVs) through state agencies and has set
a target to produce 250,000 electrified vehicles, 3,000 electric
public buses, and 53,000 electric motorcycles by 2025. The
government wants to promote Thailand as the centre of a new
generation of auto manufacturing, according to Deputy Prime
Minister Somkid Jatusripitak. "The Board of Investment [BOI] should
revise EV privileges for car and auto parts makers to make
production more attractive," said Jatusripitak.
The government held a meeting with the National New Generation
Vehicle Committee to promote the country's EV development scheme
and discuss ways to promote sales as the market develops. The EV
master plan aims to increase EV production to 30% of total annual
car production, or about 750,000 units out of 2.5 million units by
2030, according to Thai Industry Minister Suriya
Juangroongruangkit. Thailand's industry ministry plans to launch a
three-year car and motorcycle trade-in scheme, highlights the
report.
Furthermore, the government is working on developing EV charging
infrastructure in the country. PTT Plc, a state-owned oil and gas
company, and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand will
help one another in building more charging stations in the country,
instead of competing, and the Thai Board of Investment (BOI) will
work out promotional privileges for the development, according to
Jatusripitak. "Charging stations should be within a radius of 200
kilometres from one another," he said.
Outlook and Implications
The Thai government aims to increase the adoption of electrified
vehicles - including hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery electric
vehicles (BEVs) - and started promoting the alternative-powertrain
vehicle industry in 2017 by launching incentives for automakers,
component suppliers, and other companies The investment privileges
from the government attracted around 20-30 applications, mostly
from vehicle manufacturers. The BOI has approved applications from
FOMM, Mine Mobility, Mercedes-Benz, SAIC Motor, Skywell, and Toyota
for BEV production; from Honda, Mazda, Nissan, and Toyota for
hybrid vehicle production; and from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz,
Mitsubishi, SAIC Motor, and Toyota for plug-in hybrid vehicle
production. OEMs that successfully join the scheme will reap
benefits in terms of reduced import tariffs on machinery, raw
material privileges, and corporate income-tax exemptions in return
for local production of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in
hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), BEVs, and components for these
vehicles. Key automakers plan to boost production of EVs in
Thailand first in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) region as the country is the largest vehicle-production
base in the bloc. In addition, four investment companies have
already opened for electrified-vehicle battery production to help
to push electrified vehicles' safety standards, and upgrade product
regulations and consumer product-safety requirements to involve the
highest standards of testing.
IHS Markit expects demand for EVs in Thailand to grow in the
coming years, as the government has announced that it plans to
offer tax waivers, discounts, and partial subsidies for electrified
vehicle buyers under the new roadmap. The Thai government's earlier
scheme focused on the automakers and had fewer incentives on the
demand side for potential buyers. We forecast that annual
production of electrified vehicles in the country will increase
from 35,039 units in 2019 to 570,500 units in 2025 and 934,200
units in 2030.
Posted 16 March 2020 by Jamal Amir, Research Analyst
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