The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the remaking of Thailand's automotive industry, the backbone of Southeast Asia's auto sector, as factory shutdowns compound a shift toward electric vehicles.
With an estimated one-third of a million jobs at risk, Thai auto-parts makers are scrambling into industries like medical equipment, a trend likely to keep reshaping Southeast Asia's second-largest economy after the pandemic passes. The coronavirus damage to car demand will crush Thailand's output by almost half to 1.14 million vehicles this year, research firm IHS Markit forecasts.
Truck-chassis maker Sammitr Group last month received approval for a US$170 million project to make 30,000 battery-power vehicles a year in a joint venture with a Chinese company. But even if Thailand attracts more EV production, 800 auto-parts companies and more than 325,000 jobs could be at risk because an EV uses 1,500 to 3,000 parts, versus 30,000 in a traditional gasoline vehicle, said Kiriya Kulkolkarn at Thammasat University.Great Wall Motor Co, China’s top pickup truck maker, took over two General Motors Co plants in Thailand in February to make sport-utility vehicles and pickups - but held back from EV production.