Production in place: EV plants in Southeast Asia
WORDS BY ANTONINA JOSON
Southeast Asia is becoming a key region in the global EV industry. Home-grown Southeast Asian brands are expanding overseas while foreign brands are establishing facilities in the region. Rich in resources, most of the countries in the region also have the space and manpower to accommodate EV manufacturing.
Thailand
Known as the“ Auto King of Asia,” Thailand houses several EV plants for several foreign brands such as; BYD, BMW, Changan Automobile, MG, GWM, and NETA to name a few.
The biggest of these plants belongs to BYD. Located in Rayong, the facility was inaugurated on 4 July 2024 and was completed within 16 months of construction. It is BYD’ s first fully owned overseas plant and spans 960,000 square meters.
When it was first established, BYD’ s Rayong facility had an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles. Four months later, BYD Thailand announced that the factory had produced its 10,000th vehicle. It then produced another 60,000 vehicles in another year, marking its 70,000th vehicle in November 2025.
After establishing their own company in Thailand, Geely is currently in talks to set up their own EV plant in the country. Known as Geely Riddara Thailand in the country, the company intends to utilise Thailand’ s strength in producing pick-up trucks.
“ This country is an opportunity market for the pickup segment,” he said.“ Even though sales have slowed, in the long term we are confident that electric pickups will continue to grow because they save more energy compared with those running on fossil fuels.”
With its plans to construct its own EV factory, Geely Riddara Thailand will focus on the electric pick-up truck segment.
24 ISSUE 58 APRIL 2026 / WWW. AFMA. ORG. AU