Following the news that Thailand’s renewable energy company Energy Absolute (EA) is set to open an electric vehicle (EV) battery factory in Thailand;

Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“Energy Absolute has been keen on strengthening its capabilities across EV value chain and has been eyeing for leadership in the sector. The company has been a sole integrated EV player in Thailand that covers both upstream and downstream activities, including EV assembly, charging infrastructure, renewable energy production and battery manufacturing. The new battery plant would support EA’s domestic EV production, which comprises of passenger cars, commercial vehicles and ferry, and open up new opportunities for supply of batteries to other automakers.

“EA developed battery capabilities through its earlier partnerships with Taiwan’s Amita Technologies and SET-listed Nex Point Plc. The new battery factory will carry forward EA’s existing relationship and will be operated by Amita Technologies. Apart from EV batteries, the factory would also produce energy storage system for renewable power plants in the long term. The US$190m plant, which is expected to commence on 12 December, will have an initial production capacity of 1 GWh – biggest in Thailand and will eventually expand to 4GWh.

“The National New Generation Vehicle Committee and the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) aim to make Thailand a global EV production hub by 2035. As a result, the government needs to develop a suitable ecosystem which brings out significant opportunities for EA to manufacture EV, batteries and related components. Apart from EA, many other automakers and energy companies are eying to explore battery manufacturing opportunities in Thailand, some names are Japanese automaker Honda and US based e-Mobility company Evlomo. Further, BOI’s comprehensive EV package also offers attractive CIT exemptions on EV parts manufacturing and are acting as a catalyst in boosting domestic EV ecosystem that will eventually help Thailand to achieve its target of producing 1.051 million EVs by 2025.”