China’s Hozon New Energy Automobile Co. will start production in Thailand to sell in Southeast Asia, becoming the latest electric vehicle maker to begin building a supply chain in the region’s top auto-manufacturing hub, reports Bloomberg. Hozon signed an agreement with a Thai auto assembly firm earlier this week to produce its NETA V model locally starting next year, Thai government spokeswoman Tipanan Sirichana said in a statement Saturday.
The Shanghai-based EV maker, which launched the NETA V model and set up its first showroom in the Thai market last year, also plans to start adding more models to its offerings in the near future, according to Tipanan.
Competition has been heating up in Thailand, Southeast Asia’s largest market for passenger EVs. The country has a comprehensive supply chain that feeds scores of factories, mainly owned by Japanese companies that produce internal combustion engine cars.