Credit: Great Wall Motor

BEIJING, June 30 (TiPost) —— Great Wall Motor announced on Wednesday that it would enter the Vietnam market in August, with the first model being the Haval H6 HEV, a hybrid electric vehicle.

Great Wall Motor plans to export complete vehicles from its Rayong plant in Thailand to the Vietnamese market at first and set up a new energy vehicle assembly plant in Vietnam in 2025.

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Vietnam was the fourth largest auto market in the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN), with about 500,000 vehicles sold in 2022. Great Wall Motor has already entered six ASEAN countries, namely Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Brunei, Philippines, and Cambodia, and aims to enter Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia in the second half of 2023.

The company"s Rayong plant in Thailand started production in June 2021, with an initial annual capacity of 80,000 units and a maximum annual capacity of 120,000 units. Two oil-electric hybrid models, the Haval H6 HEV and Haval JOLION, are being produced.

Local media in Thailand reported that Great Wall Motor plans to start producing pure electric (EV) vehicles in Thailand in 2024. The company responded by saying that the company is communicating the production schedule of pure EV models with relevant departments and core suppliers. The localized production in Thailand is likely to kick off in around 2025.

SVOLT Energy Technology recently said that the company plans to build a battery pack factory in Thailand. The company was formerly the Power Battery Division of Great Wall Motor, which was spun off for independent development in 2018.

Thailand is a common choice for a number of Chinese car companies to enter the ASEAN market. Hozon Auto announced in March 2023 that the company started the construction of its Thailand factory in Bangkok, which is expected to be put into operation at the end of January 2024. BYD"s first overseas passenger car factory broke ground in Thailand in September 2022. BYD said the Thai plant is expected to start production in 2024.

Great Wall Motor has introduced that 60% of the cars produced by the Rayong plant will be sold locally in Thailand and 40% will be exported to other overseas markets. Vietnam will be the first export destination for the Rayong plant.

Great Wall Motor’s foray into Thailand has been successful. Sales of Great Wall Motor in Thailand exceeded 10,000 units in 2022, compared to less than 4,000 units in the same period in 2021. The company hopes to achieve 50 percent year-on-year sales growth in Thailand in 2023. Great Wall Motor achieved 111,700 units of overseas sales in 2022, up 14.09 percent year-on-year.

An unnamed investor focusing on the auto supply chain said China"s new energy vehicle market only took off in the second half of 2020, and after about three years, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is close to 30 percent. Because the ASEAN new energy vehicle market is in the early stage of development, many Chinese auto companies hope to seize the opportunity.