By NNN-TNA
Bangkok : Interest shown by at least seven foreign automobile manufacturers in producing eco-cars will enable Thailand to export not less than 700,000 eco-cars annually in the next five years, a ranking industrial player said Saturday.
Vallop Tiasiri, president of the Thailand Automotive Institute, said if all seven eco-car manufacturers are granted promotional privileges from the government-run Board of Investment (BoI), Thailand would become a major producer and exporter of cars.
Under BoI regulations, each manufacturer must export not less than 100,000 cars annually, meaning that an additional 700,000 eco-cars would be shipped in the next five years on top of the about one million vehicles, mainly pick-up trucks for export, he said.
Thailand will become one of the world’s top 10 car producers and exporters. The country now ranks 15th in the world auto market, he said.
New investment in eco-car production is estimated at Bt35-40 billion.
The BoI has already granted promotional privileges to Suzuki Motor Corp and Siam Nissan Automobile to make export-bound eco-cars.
The BoI is scheduled in January to consider granting similar privileges to five other automotive manufacturing projects set up by Mitsubishi, Toyota, Honda, Germany’s Volkswagen and India’s Tata.