22-07-2025
Omoda & Jaecoo vows to expand Thai investment
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Omoda & Jaecoo (Thailand) is planning to spend more money in a bid to stimulate sales of EVs amid the sluggish automotive market in Thailand.
The company, a subsidiary of China's state-owned Chery Automobile, earlier announced a 5-billion-baht investment to build a battery EV (BEV) plant in Rayong, scheduled to start operations in the fourth quarter of this year.
"We have no plan to cut the investment budget. Instead we will increase the budget to support our marketing campaign to boost car sales," said Qi Jie, president of Omoda & Jaecoo.
A compelling marketing campaign is needed for Omoda & Jaecoo to better compete with rival EV companies, especially those from China, as competition in the EV segment is strong, he said.
Many Chinese EV manufacturers are also spending money on marketing campaigns, both in terms of pricing strategy and brand building, in an effort to boost sales.
Omoda & Jaecoo and other EV companies are struggling to deal with the impact of fewer auto loans as banks and car financing companies remain cautious about lending money to prospective car purchasers amid the high level of household debt in the country, for fear of non-performing loans.
According to Mr Qi, the company is not concerned about the Board of Investment's (BoI) ongoing efforts to encourage EV manufacturers to use more domestically sourced auto parts for EV assembly.
BEV manufacturers who are granted tax and investment incentives by the BoI are required to have the proportion of domestic EV parts represent 40% of total EV component costs. The parts value increases to 45% for plug-in hybrid EV manufacturers.
"We set a target to have local content make up more than 50% of the total costs, up from less than 20% at present," said Mr Qi, who added that the low amount resulted from the initial phase of Thailand's EV industry development.
The company had a total of 42 showrooms in the first half of this year. The number is set to increase to 70 by the end of 2025.
From October 2024 to June 2025, Omoda & Jaecoo sold 1,000 cars in Thailand.
