Globally, electric vehicles are witnessing an upsurge and therefore, Thailand’s KTB group expects the nation to have one billion electric vehicles by 2028
Around the world, several countries are doing everything in their power to replace fuel-driven vehicles with electric vehicles in a bid to curb the immense pollution caused by conventional vehicles. For example, India has introduced a special scheme to streamline the production and adoption of electric vehicles in the country at a faster pace. Not just India, but almost every country has implemented its own plans and policies to make electric vehicles the next permanent thing.
Moving on to Thailand, the country has seen little growth in the electric vehicles segment. However, Thailand’s KTB group expects the country to feature one billion electric vehicles by 2028. Although the country at present has no electric vehicles’ infrastructure, it hopes to encourage manufacturers and consumers through its Board of Investment incentives. However, Krungthai Bank (KTB) group believes there are other factors that are likely to help Thailand achieve the impossible objective.
To Bangkok Post, Mana Nimitvanich, first vice-president of KTB said, “Thailand saw registrations of EVs increase to 190,000 or around 1% of total cars in 2020. Thailand is a hub of car production in ASEAN and has strong supply chains for the automotive industry, so it can be a hub of PHEV production in the future. A move towards PHEV production would also be beneficial for small enterprises in automotive supply chains.”
PimchatrEkkachan, Krungthai Compass analyst, further added, “ICE car production will not be disrupted quickly, which will allow local suppliers to improve technology and operations to provide next-generation cars.”
As per the KTB group, automakers from Japan are focused on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles rather than battery electric vehicles and zero-emission vehicles. Since Thailand is a country that has the potential to manufacture PHEVs and take the entire PHEVs infrastructure to a better level, PHEVs from Japan are likely to help the country attain the feat by 2028. Not to forget, for a really long period, Thailand has manufactured conventional cars for several Japanese automakers in Thailand and therefore, a streamlined coalition is likely to take place.
Last but not least, at present, some of the best electric vehicles present in Thailand are MG ZS EV, Jaguar I-Pace, Nissan Leaf, Audi E-Tron, Hyundai Kona Electric and Mini Cooper SE.
