Thai Auto Industry Plan Greener, More Productive

The Thailand Automotive Institute revises its 5-year industry master plan to focus mainly on alternative energy and become a top-10 global auto producer by 2014.

Director Wallop Tiasiri says the institute is inviting executives from 14 automotive and components companies to discuss setting up the phase three of the master plan covering 2012-2016, as well as setting new targets for vehicle production.

The first phase of the master plan covered 2002-2006 and concentrated on pickup trucks. Phase two, from 2007-2011, focused on eco-friendly cars and saw the industry export about half its output.

“The third phase will call for auto production in Thailand to exceed 3 million units in 2014,” Wallop tells the Bangkok Post. “We'll also push for investment in new products, which will focus on vehicles using alternative energy.”

Wallop says Thailand’s massive floods have made it hard to hold discussions with the auto makers’ CEOs, as they still are having trouble finding parts for vehicle production. As a result, there is no deadline or target for the third phase.

“Initially, we may be looking for new products that use alternative energy such as E-85 (gasoline/ethanol) vehicles, as Thailand has a large number of agricultural products that can be used to produce energy,” Wallop says.

Discussions on the third phase are expected to begin by midyear once all factories have recovered from the flood crisis.

“Due to the flooding, orders have been increasingly high and customers must wait for an average of four months to receive their vehicles,” Wallop tells the newspaper. “That is the longest period of waiting ever experienced in all our various crises – it's usually been only one or two months.”

Wallop says Thai production should reach 500,000 units in the year’s first quarter and 2 million units for the full year. He sees domestic sales rising 30% to 1.1 million units.