BYD opens its first Southeast Asian auto plant in Thailand

BYD has built its Thai factory inside the WHA Rayong 36 industrial estate in Nikhom Phatthana District (Rayong Province). The new plant covers an area of more than 948,000 square metres and has an annual production capacity of 150,000 units. The company built the new plant to manufacture right-hand drive (RHD) models for domestic sales and exports to other ASEAN markets. The Chinese automaker already sells cars in other RHD member states of the union – Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The first car BYD made at its new auto plant was the Dolphin electric hatchback. Along with the rollout of the first unit in Thailand, it achieved a new production milestone of 8 million new energy vehicles. The company also makes the Atto 3 electric SUV and Seal electric sedan there. In the future, the Chinese automaker will also produce the Sealion 6 (Seal U) plug-in hybrid SUV at the Thai factory.

BYD markets its passenger vehicles in Thailand through Rever Automotive, which serves as its distributor and after-sales service provider. In other recent news, the Thai government plans to investigate the Chinese automaker through the Consumer Protection Board after it caught the local BYD arm heavily discounting the Dolphin.

In April, Rever Automotive lured customers by slashing ฿40,000 (€1,012) off the Dolphin’s price, and the very next day after ending that campaign, it rolled out a significantly higher discount of ฿100,000 (€2,530). This month, the company is offering even bigger reductions of ฿140,000-160,000 (€3,542-4,048). This malpractice results in buyer’s remorse and also affects the resale value of their cars. Excluding discounts, it has priced the small hatchback at ฿699,990 (€17,711) in a ‘Standard Range’ variant and ฿859,999 (€21,759) in an ‘Extended Range’ variant.

On the other side of the planet, for the new BYD production in Uzbekistan, BYD has entered into a cooperation agreement with the Uzbek government to promote sustainable mobility. At the opening of the plant in Jizzakh in the south of the country, Wang said that the start of series production in Uzbekistan would “accelerate the green transformation of the local transport system”.

BYD is building the Song Plus DM-i and Chazor DM-i plug-in hybrids in Jizzakh. The Song Plus is based on BYD’s e-Platform 3.0 and is one of the best-selling models in the Ocean series, at least in China, as the CN EV Post writes. Production in Uzbekistan is carried out via a joint venture with UzAuto, the country’s only car manufacturer to date.

In the first phase, up to 50,000 vehicles will be built in Uzbekistan per year, according to BYD. The aim is to meet demand in the country. However, BYD is not entirely without experience: before the plant was built, BYD sold vehicles imported from China in the country.

ev.iphonemod.net, bangkokpost.com, nationthailand.com,  cnevpost.com (Uzbekistan)