webfact Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 BMW to push PHEVs in Thailand By KITTIPONG THAVEVONG THE NATION MUNICH Christian Wiedmann, president of BMW Group Thailand. Photo courtesy of PTT/Kampon Termkijanan BMW Thailand is placing high hopes on electric cars, seeing a promising outlook amid a growing market globally as well as locally. Christian Wiedmann, president of BMW Group Thailand, said the German carmaker would continue churning out new models of its electric vehicles (EVs) due to confidence in the global market expansion, with Thailand included. “In Thailand, BMW has expanded the market for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles [PHEVs] over the past three years. Sales increased 44 per cent per year,” Wiedmann said recently at the BMW head office in Munich. That growth makes Thailand number three in the world in terms of market acceptance of PHEVs, according to Krisda Utamote, BMW Group Thailand’s director of corporate communications. Wiedmann told a group of Thai media that regarding electric cars, the focus for BMW Thailand would now be on selling PHEVs, which had seen a rapid market growth worldwide. At this point, BMW will not import battery electric vehicles [BEVs] for sale in Thailand as it is still trying to determine the local demand and consumer response to fully electric cars, said Wiedmann, who assumed his current executive position on April 1. “We will see if there is a market for BEVs in Thailand,” he added. Unlike PHEVs that also can run on petrol, BEVs are powered entirely by electricity and have no engine or fuel tank. Wiedmann said that like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, Thai motorists have concerns regarding fully electric cars. Many motorists are worried that they may run out of power while driving a fully electric car for a long distance. Charging stations are not yet widely available like petrol stations, particularly in the provinces or rural areas. However, thanks to improved battery technology, newer models of BEVs can run a longer distance for each charge, up to 250-300 kilometres for the BMW i3, which has a “range extender” to generate more power to the battery. The compact i3 model is popular in Europe and the United States. But BMW has no plans to officially market it in Thailand anytime soon, according to Krisda. He added that certain Thai agencies imported i3 cars mainly for research purposes. Fully electric cars are more suited to smaller countries in Europe, while motorists in countries with larger areas and longer distances like the US may prefer plug-in hybrid vehicles, said a BMW expert who asked not to be named. BMW offers charging services for EVs through its subsidiary ChargeNow, which has more than 100,000 charging stations the world over. In Thailand, ChargeNow offers charging services to electric vehicles of all makes registered with its website, and not just BMW’s EVs, Krisda said. It plans to build 50 public charging stations at BMW dealerships and partnership locations by the end of this year. Another partner in the charging services, GLT Green (Thailand) Co Ltd, which specialises in EV charging technology, has set up 73 charging outlets throughout Thailand and is adding another 47 outlets by mid-2018, according to the company’s business development manager Chayaphol Leeraphante. Altogether, GLT Green plans to set up as many as 160 charging outlets this year, he said. Last year, BMW sales in Thailand exceeded 10,000 for the first time since BMW Thailand was established in 1998, a 43-per-cent increase from a year earlier. Wiedmann said the growth was the highest among BMW’s worldwide operations. He said that given the satisfactory growth, BMW Thailand was going to expand its local production, with plug-in hybrid electric cars included. Four of the nine BMW models currently assembled and sold in Thailand are PHEVs – 330e, 530e, 740e and X5e, according to Wiedmann. Wiedmann and other executives spoke at the Munich headquarters of BMW to a large group of Thai media who were on a recent trip to Germany. The trip was organised by Thailand’s petroleum giant PTT, which announced plans to become a Thai dealer for EVs. The energy company said future cooperation with the German carmaker in this area was possible. Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Corporate/30346890 -- © Copyright The Nation 2018-06-04 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post canopy Posted June 3, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted June 3, 2018 (edited) Let's look at just one pricing example. The 740e has a tiny 4 cylinder engine and is assembled in Thailand yet it costs 6.6 million baht which in other countries would easily buy two of them. I had heard engine size and import duties drive up costs, but clearly these are not the factors driving up the costs for these BMWs. What is the reason for the price hike? Edited June 3, 2018 by canopy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesofa Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 3 hours ago, webfact said: BMW to push PHEVs in Thailand Rather an unfortunate choice of words there by the headline writer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargeezr Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 How about the plug in hyrid electric wagons, when will they be on the market? PHEWs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post overherebc Posted June 4, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted June 4, 2018 4 hours ago, canopy said: Let's look at just one pricing example. The 740e has a tiny 4 cylinder engine and is assembled in Thailand yet it costs 6.6 million baht which in other countries would easily buy two of them. I had heard engine size and import duties drive up costs, but clearly these are not the factors driving up the costs for these BMWs. What is the reason for the price hike? The price makes them 'exclusive' 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwill Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 some day they will discover that driving while being constantly exposed to a pulsating magnetic field is causing cancer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srikcir Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 8 hours ago, webfact said: Wiedmann said the growth was the highest among BMW’s worldwide operations. And the volume probably the lowest among BMW's worldwide operations. Such hyperbole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanleycoin Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 4 hours ago, rwill said: some day they will discover that driving while being constantly exposed to a pulsating magnetic field is causing cancer... Are we talking about cars here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratcatcher Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 There has been no mention about the charges for the charge or who would be charged with operating the charging facilities Maybe PTT, stations, but that might be a slight conflict of interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAG Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 (edited) 10 hours ago, bluesofa said: Rather an unfortunate choice of words there by the headline writer. A long time ago, in a distant galaxy I had an old BMW 1602. When it went, well, phew, it went like nothing on earth. I did have to push it quite often though! Happy days... Edited June 4, 2018 by JAG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eligius Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 This guy Wiedmann from the German company BMW is one big liar. Everyone knows that it was the Thais who invented electric cars and are developing them to stellar degrees of perfection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBJ Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 2 hours ago, ratcatcher said: There has been no mention about the charges for the charge or who would be charged with operating the charging facilities Maybe PTT, stations, but that might be a slight conflict of interest. Oddly, Max Valu in Khlong Sam Wa fitted 4 charging zones in their carpark last year. I haven't seen one car use them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now