The sole Thai distributor of BYD, the world’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) maker, will treble its dealerships in Thailand in two years, it said, helping to cement the Chinese automaker’s dominant position in its top overseas market.

BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s top EV maker in the fourth quarter last year. The expansion in Thailand underscores its global push – especially in markets where its US rival has yet to become a major vendor – as EV sales growth slows in its home market China.

Rever Automotive CEO Pratarnwong Phornprapha told Reuters that it will add 300 BYD dealerships by end-2025, expand commercial vehicles offerings and enter new passenger car segments. The distributor helped launch BYD in Thailand in late 2022.

“I think around 300 for us is a healthy number,” he added.

Rever currently has around 100 outlets, establishing BYD as the dominant carmaker in the fast-growing Thai EV market with a 40 per cent market share, said Pratarnwong.

BYD sold a total of three million passenger vehicles in 2023, with more than 90 per cent of those going into the China market, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Overseas sales amounted to around 242,000 units.

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Thailand accounted for around 20 per cent of BYD’s international sales in the third quarter, according to research firm Counterpoint, maintaining its spot as the automaker’s largest overseas market. It is also investing 17.9 billion baht (S$675.7 million) in the country to build a factory scheduled to open this year.

Revving up

EV sales in Thailand made up a little over 7 per cent of all passenger vehicle sales in the country in the third quarter of 2023, Counterpoint data showed. But it is one of the fastest growing EV markets in South-east Asia, aided by government subsidies and policies.

Late last year, the Thai government approved a scaled-down subsidy package for the EV industry, although still offering up to 100,000 baht per vehicle and lower import duties and excise taxes.

Overall, Thailand plans to convert about 30 per cent of its annual production of 2.5 million vehicles into EVs by 2030; it has attracted more than US$1.44 billion in investments from Chinese auto companies.

BYD has been outperforming other automakers in South-east Asia’s EV market, bolstered by partnerships with local distributors and affordable models such as the Atto 3 SUV, which was the region’s best-selling EV in the third quarter.

On Thursday (Jan 18), the company unveiled three battery EV models in Indonesia, South-east Asia’s biggest economy, where BYD is also planning to invest US$1.3 billion in an assembly plant.

In Thailand, its efforts to expand product offerings are set to pose a challenge to Japanese rivals, including Toyota Motor, that have long dominated the country’s auto market.

“Roughly, I think we have to get into MPVs, we have to get into bigger SUVs, and smaller sedans, bigger sedans,” Pratarnwong said, referring to multipurpose and sport utility vehicles. Rever currently offers three BYD EV models in Thailand: the Seal sedan, the Atto 3 SUV and the Dolphin hatchback.

Beyond passenger cars, Rever is looking to make inroads into commercial fleets using BYD vehicles and technology, including for taxis, short-haul trucks and vans, and buses.

Thailand had over 81,000 registered taxis as at September 2023, according to government data. Rever is aiming to capture 40 per cent of the new vehicles entering that market, said Pratarnwong.

Short rides

Rever is also offering the BYD T3 van for limited-distance deliveries that picked up during the Covid-19 pandemic, said vice-chief executive Pratarnporn Phornprapha. “There’s a lot of short-haul deliveries going on,” she said. “It’s a huge chunk which we wanted to focus on.”

Pratarnwong and Pratarnporn are siblings hailing from the Phornprapha family that established the Siam Motors Group (SMG), which helped develop Thailand’s automotive industry. Rever is independent from SMG, Pratarnwong has previously said.

A Rever subsidiary is also building a bus production facility that will use BYD technology, with the first chassis likely to roll out in the third quarter of 2024, Pratarnwong said.

“This year will be the year that we properly attack the commercial market,” he said. REUTERS