Credit: svolt.cn

BEIJING, July 6 (TiPost) —— SVOLT Energy Technology, a company developed from the battery unit of Great Wall Motors, started building its Thailand module PACK plant, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, according to the announcement made by the company on Wednesday.

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The factory is expected to have an annual capacity of 60,000 sets of battery PACKs.

According to the demand from local customers, SVOLT Thailand factory has planned two battery PACK production lines, which are soft pack battery PACKs for oil-electric hybrid models and short blade battery PACKs for plug-in hybrid and pure electric models.

SVOLT said that the company will import battery cells from China and assemble the modules into PACKs in Thailand in its initial stage.

Yang Hongxin, the Chairman and CEO of SVOLT, said at the groundbreaking ceremony that SVOLT sees Thailand as a new starting point for the strategic development of the Southeast Asia market. It will take advantage of China"s advanced power battery technology and the supportive policies of the Thai government to introduce China"s advanced lithium technology into Thailand and build a local battery supply chain system.

SVOLT also mentioned that the company is currently working with customers such as Great Wall Motor and Hozon New Energy Automobile in Thailand, and is also increasing its customer base.

Chinese automakers are gaining momentum in Thailand"s new energy vehicle market. According to market agency Autolifethailand, the top five pure electric vehicles models in Thailand in terms of sales in the first half of 2023 were the BYD Atto3, Hozonauto"s V, Tesla Model Y, and SAIC MG 4 Electric. The BYD Atto3 was the only pure electric model with have over 10,000 units sold in the first half of the year.

SVOLT, formerly the power battery division of Great Wall Motor, was spun off for independent development in 2018. It has applied for an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market and is currently in the process of going public.

Thailand aims to increase the electric vehicle sales volume to 30% of the total vehicle sales by 2030, by providing tax breaks and subsidies to EV buyers. This has attracted Chinese new energy vehicle companies and power battery companies to enter the Thai market.

BYD entered the Thai market in August 2022. The company announced in September that it will build its first overseas passenger car plant in Thailand , with an annual production capacity of about 150,000 units. The plant is expected to come on stream in 2024.

Hozonauto also entered Thailand in August 2022. In March 2023, the company announced that it had laid the foundation for its Thai plant in Bangkok, with production expected to begin by the end of January 2024.

CATL announced a partnership with Thailand"s Arun Plus Ltd. on June 9, 2023, to provide a CTP battery pack production line and share production technology.

Arun Plus is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT), the largest state-controlled energy and petrochemical company in Thailand. Arun Plus established an electric vehicle manufacturing subsidiary to meet the demand for vehicle electrification in Thailand and Southeast Asia in November 2022.