PTT, Thailand’s largest energy company, has just signed an agreement with Chinese electric vehicle (EV) startup Hozon aimed at expanding the Southeast Asian country’s EV market. The startup will regard Thailand as the center for its global strategy and will afterwards make inroads to the EV markets of other ASEAN’s member countries.
The agreement includes distributing Hozon’s vehicles and exploring opportunities for production with PTT facility in Thailand. This follows PTT’s establishment in late 2021 of a joint venture with Taiwan’s Foxconn for an EV production facility. Shifting to EV is part of PTT’s new vision of growing new business and increasing renewable power use.
Thailand is Asia’s fourth-largest autos assembly and export hub, boasting a production base for top carmakers, such as Toyota and China’s Great Wall Motor. The Thai government, which is the majority shareholder of PTT, has set a goal of 30% of domestic auto production be EVs by 2030.
In 2021, PTT announced plans to invest between USD 1 billion to USD 2 billion over six years in EV production, with initial manufacturing target of 50,000 vehicles per year.
(Sources: MarkLines; Bangkok Post)
