China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd. (GAC) said it will partner with local distributor TH Group to build an auto assembly plant in Cambodia, stepping up its overseas push as domestic sales falter, reports Caixin. The factory, located in central Kampong Chhnang province, will involve an investment of about $19 million, the Guangzhou-based automaker said Sunday. Construction is expected to be completed by December 2025, with mass production beginning the following month.
The plant will feature four assembly lines with an annual capacity of around 15,000 vehicles. Cambodia’s Council for the Development, the country’s top investment authority, granted TH Group a production license in August.
GAC and TH first teamed up in 2019 for vehicle distribution. Their expanded cooperation follows a broader wave of Chinese automakers building assembly plants across Southeast Asia, where governments have rolled out incentives to boost electric vehicle adoption. PwC data show that EV penetration in six major Southeast Asian markets—Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore—reached 13% in 2024, up four percentage points from the previous year.