Southeast Asia is becoming one of BYD Auto’s rising and significant markets as of late. Thanks to incentives, more consumers in the region are looking at electric vehicles, and the company seeks to capitalize on that even more.
With that, the Chinese automaker is making strides in investing in ASEAN. Showing that they’re serious about it, BYD has just opened its very first assembly plant in the region.
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The first BYD production facility is located in Rayong, Thailand. It has a production capacity of around 150,000 vehicles, and it’s set to build four of its key models over there. Not only that, one of BYD’s subsidiaries will also build a battery plant over there.
So, what BYD models will be made in Thailand? These are the Dolphin hatchback, the Atto 3 subcompact crossover, the Song sedan, and the Sealion compact crossover. Production has begun and units made in Thailand will soon arrive within the country’s showrooms.
Now that BYDs are now made within the region, does this mean we could expect price cuts soon? Hold your horses, let’s not jump the gun yet. First off all, it will still depend on the distributor. It’s up to them to decide if it, in this case, Ayala Corporation, will start sourcing Philippine-spec units from Thailand or stick to China.
Cost is another factor, and we’re almost certain that the distributor is checking to see if it’s worth changing the source of these models. That said, the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement might be more favorable for the Thai-build models in the long run.
Thailand has already begun marking down prices of BYD models. Once that plat starts exporting units in neighboring countries, we might see discounts happening for the rest of ASEAN.
The Land of Smiles isn’t the only country where BYD is setting up assembly plants. Come 2026, a second ASEAN factory will open in Indonesia. It’s unknown what models will be built there, but what’s certain is it will consist of passenger cars.
