Domestic and overseas sales of EVs will prevent oversupply, BOI assures
The Thai electric vehicle (EV) industry would not face oversupply issues as automakers plan to sell the EVs both in the domestic and overseas markets, the Board of Investment (BOI) said on Thursday.
The board secretary-general, Narit Therdsteerasukdi, who is also secretary of National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee, said automakers in Thailand have complied with the conditions under the government’s EV3.0 policy.
The policy offers import tax exemption as well as other subsidies to EV-makers, but sets a 1:1 ratio for cars manufactured locally against those imported in 2024, and a 1:1.5 ratio for local production versus imports in 2025.
“Apart from selling domestically, EV-makers in Thailand also plan to export vehicles,” he said.
Earlier, the Thai Electric Vehicle Association (EVAT) urged EV manufacturers in Thailand to prepare for oversupply in the next few years due to the production requirement under the EV 3.0 policy.
“It is estimated that by 2025, EV-makers will need to manufacture 180,000 units to offset the imports,” EVAT president Krisda Utamote said on Wednesday. “With the low purchasing power in the Thai market, automakers will need to seek out secondary markets to distribute their products or risk suffering losses from oversupply.”
Krisda estimated a total demand of around 600,000 EVs in the Thai market, while total production capacity of the seven EV-makers in Thailand stands at 490,000 units. If factories run at full capacity, this will drive production to exceed 60 per cent of demand.
He advised the national electric vehicle board to consider measures to help relieve oversupply if it were to happen, including urging financial institutions to relax their loan requirements and allow more people to buy EVs.
The Excise Department has estimated that around 185,029 EVs will be imported under the EV3.0 policy. Of these, 84,195 EVs were imported in 2022-2023, 66,448 in 2024, and 34,386 will be imported in 2025.
The five companies expected to import the most number of EVs between 2022 and 2025 are: Rever Automotive (77,247 units), Neta Auto (40,837), MG Sales (27,186), Great Wall Motor Manufacturing (24,225), and EV Primus (8,493).
Manufacturers who fail to achieve the ratio of domestic production to imports will need to return the subsidies and will be penalised at twice the amount of import tax exemption.
