Incentives from the Thai government to encourage automakers to produce fuel-efficient "eco-cars" have yielded a raft of major investments and started to change how Thais drive, experts said.
Tax breaks for automakers and car buyers were unveiled last year, as the government worried that Thailand's position as the world's biggest maker of light pickups might not be enough to guarantee the future of its auto industry.
Thailand churns out 900,000 one-tonne trucks every year -- about three-fourths of global output.
But amid soaring oil prices and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, the government expressed concern that the global market for gas-guzzling trucks could weaken as consumers turn to more fuel-efficient cars.
So last year Thailand announced incentives to encourage automakers to set up local production bases for "eco-cars" that meet the most stringent European emission standards and run on fuel with a 20 percent ethanol component.
Sales taxes on smaller cars were also slashed from Jan. 1, which sent sales booming in the first two months of the year.
"First-time car owners -- and especially motorcyclists who want to become car owners -- are cost-conscious consumers," said Surapong Paisitpatnapong, spokesman for the Federation of Thai Industries' automotive club.
"Investments in eco-car production will help grow this new segment of the country's domestic auto market while increasing exports," he said.
Seven automakers, including Toyota, Volkswagen and Tata -- have proposed eco-car projects to Thailand's Board of Investment. Four have already been approved, Surapong said.
Among the deals, Honda plans to invest 6.7 billion baht (US$213 million) to assemble eco-cars while manufacturing engines and parts here.
The new plant will produce 120,000 units a year, with about half destined for other Asian and European markets.
Most of the proposals are designed to produce cars for export. Shipments of passenger cars jumped more than 43 percent in the first two months of the year compared with last year.
But the government is also boosting domestic demand for fuel-efficient vehicles by slashing selected taxes.
"Eco-cars are going to be hot in Thailand's auto market. The lower prices for these minicars, along with high oil prices, will drive up the demand," said Nongnapat Wilepana, a Nissan dealer.
Analysts say the new investments by automakers will also give the broader economy.
"There will be more jobs for local people not only at auto assembly plants for eco-cars but also at auto part plants" supplying the new factories, said Pichai Lertsupongkit, senior vice president at Thanachart Securities.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS