Thailand's car production is estimated to rise by 500,000 vehicles next year, propelled by the second phase of the eco-car scheme, says the Thailand Automotive Institute (TAI).
Bradley: Sees Thai factory as a hub
"Although some car makers may put off their production because of the sluggish car market, there are still some makers who are ready to start their assembly line for the new phase," TAI president Vichai Jirathiyut said.
"Overall production is thus likely to hit 3.35 million units in 2015."
Ten car makers including five existing eco-car producers applied for the second phase of the government's eco-car scheme, with total expected investment of 139 billion baht.
All 10 participants are set to produce 1.58 million eco-cars.
The existing five manufacturers are prepared to invest 86.8 billion baht for the production of 753,000 eco-cars, while the five newcomers will spend 52 billion to make 828,000.
At present, five eco-car makers have won Board of Investment (BoI) privileges for the second phase.
Japan's Mazda Motor Corporation, the first eco-car maker to apply for the second phase, is set to kick off its local eco-car production on Nov 6 after winning BoI privileges on July 18.
Four other car makers — Ford, General Motors, Nissan and Mitsubishi — have already won BoI privileges, while the investment applications of Toyota, Honda, Suzuki, SAIC Motor-CP and Volkswagen are under consideration.
In related news, Matt Bradley, Ford's president for Southeast Asia, yesterday said Ford was committed to moving ahead with its eco-car production.
"Despite this year's sluggish market, Ford expects domestic sales will recover next year," Mr Bradley said.
Ford's investment application for the eco-car scheme gained BoI approval on Oct 3.
The company will spend 18.2 billion baht to make environmentally friendly cars, with annual production capacity of 180,000 vehicles and 2,000 engines at Ford Thailand Manufacturing in Rayong province.
Mr Bradley said once it begins eco-car production, Ford wanted to use its Thai factory as an Asean manufacturing hub.
In Asean, Ford now runs production facilities in Thailand and Vietnam that make 280,000 and 20,000 units a year, respectively.
Ford entered the Thai market in 1995 and has invested US$2.4 billion in production, design, distribution and services.
The Michigan-based giant runs two plants in Rayong.
One is under Ford Thailand Manufacturing that was set up in 2012 at a cost of $450 million with annual production of 160,000 vehicles.
The other is worth $1.66 billion and run by AutoAlliance (Thailand), a joint venture formed with Mazda in 1997.