The Chinese electric car and battery maker announced it will be expanding its production in Thailand and other countries.
China's electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD revealed on Thursday that it will build a production facility in Rayong, Thailand on a plot of land 96 hectares or 237 acres large. The Chinese EV leader said its goal was to begin producing up to 150,000 passenger EVs annually beginning 2024.
In a joint statement with Thai industrial developer WHA Group, BYD confirmed that a purchase agreement had been made for the land in Rayong, which lies on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, Reuters reported. Thailand's Board of Investment approved the $491.49 million deal in August.
BYD Leading EV Manufacturing in China and Beyond
BYD is China's largest manufacturer of EVs and is looking to sell 10,000 units within Thailand and export the rest to countries in Southeast Asia and Europe. Its upcoming EV factory in Thailand is the latest in the string of 30 facilities it has already built in the US, Brazil, and India. The Thailand EV factory is expected to produce the brand's fully electric Atto 3 and would possibly even manufacture batteries, depending on the demand.
Meanwhile, Thailand is looking to increase EV production to around 700,000 by 2030 or 30% of its total auto manufacturing. Thailand is Southeast Asia's second-largest economy and is a regional hub for automobile production and export, including those for widely popular brands such as Toyota and Honda. The Thai government has recently established incentives and tax breaks for EV investors.
WHA Group Vice Chairman David Nardone reported that the interest in investing in Thailand's automobile industry sprung from the increasing costs and travel restrictions in China. Nardone cited "supply chain, energy, and labor costs" as the main reasons why China is looking elsewhere to build factories. WHA Group alone had increased its forecast of land sales by 55% to 224 hectares in 2022 alone.
BYD Continues Expansion Globally
The Chinese EV giant said in the past year that it had begun selling electric cars in Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Norway but did not disclose revenue in those regions yet. Most of BYD's overseas business previously focused on commercial vehicles such as buses, but in China BYD has grown to become an EV leader in a country with the world's largest automobile market, CNBC reported.
BYD confirmed that over 487,000 of their purely electric passenger cars were sold in the first eight months of 2022, which is more than triple the units they sold during the same time last year. This is comparable to Tesla's 564,743 EVs delivered in the US in the first six months of 2022, an increase of 46% from last year. However, BYD offers EVs in a range of price points, unlike Tesla which opts to sell premium-priced units.
BYD also confirmed it no longer produces fuel-powered vehicles since March and is now focused on EV production. The brand is also using its own "Blade" battery that is present in BYD's Han luxury sedan.
