According to Japan News Service, as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean players race to get in at the start of EV manufacturing in the region, Indonesia and Thailand have emerged as two of the most popular Asian locations for investment in parts and materials for EVs.
A Japanese plastics manufacturer opened its first factory in Thailand in April.
The new facility is one of a growing number of EV-related investments in Thailand, the largest car producer in Southeast Asia but a relatively young market for electric vehicles. Just last year, an automobile company began producing electric vehicles, and in 2024, a Chinese automaker intends to start assembling vehicles here in Thailand.
The facility, a joint venture between a Thai petrochemical company and a Japanese trading house company, received an investment of about 70 billion JPY (520 million USD).
In March, a Japanese electronic components manufacturer announced that it had finished constructing a multilayer ceramic capacitor facility in Lamphun province in northern Thailand. Multilayer ceramic capacitors stabilize the flow of electricity inside devices. As many as 10,000 can be needed in an EV. The world leader in these capacitors plans to increase its supply capacity in Southeast Asia.
Thailand introduced incentives in 2022 to promote the shift to EVs, and Chinese and Japanese automakers responded.
China automobile company plans to open a plant with an annual output of 150,000 vehicles next year.
