The Thai government claims that a number of Japanese car manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Isuzu have invested in making electric vehicles in the Southeast Asia region.
In total the Thai government has received investment of up to 150 billion baht.
In the report, it was stated that Toyota Motor and Honda Motor would each invest around 50 billion baht, while Isuzu Motors would invest 30 billion baht. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Motors will invest 20 billion baht.
“Large Japanese car manufacturers will invest 150 billion baht in Thailand over the next five years,” said spokesman Chai Wacharoke, quoted by Reuters, Wednesday (27/12/2023).
Thailand is the second largest economy and the largest car producer and exporter in the Southeast Asia region.
Japanese manufacturers have dominated Thailand’s automotive sector for decades, but Chinese electric vehicle makers have recently made major investments to dominate the electric vehicle market.
“The investments made by Japanese car manufacturers will support the government’s policy to switch from combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles,” said Chai.
Thailand is known to have set a target to convert around a third of its annual production of 2.5 million vehicles to electric vehicles by 2030.
To smooth this plan, the Thai government is also preparing policies in the form of incentives to encourage more investment and conversion to in electric vehicle manufacturing.
The government’s policy of tax cuts and subsidies to switch to electric vehicles has attracted many Chinese car manufacturers, including BYD and Great Wall Motor, to set up new production facilities in the country.
However, so far there has been no official information from Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Isuzu regarding investment in Thai electric vehicles.