What “kind of has to” what???? 

The bottom line of a consumer product is dont make what folks wont buy.

20 minutes ago, Unamerican said:

What the … are these Territorial Vehicles, please!! ???  

Aha, thanks!  Strange name (but strange country, everything upside down, eg the moon:-). 

9 hours ago, BritScot said:

He just so happens to be the man who rescued Thailand from Military incompetent rule and the baht crash. The only person who can hold his head up with GDP figures of over 14%, and the highest English proficiency results in Thailands history.  So all in all a very qualified guy! Now you will start spouting "Ah but he is a criminal, ah but , he was corrupt! First being ousted by a military coup, tarnished any conviction that followed then you will say currupt! Corruption rose sharply when the boys in green rolled their tanks into Bangkok!!! Figures of a 20% rise were mentioned by some. So, from 20% to 40% skim before anything done....

He may or may not be all of those things. That is up for debate.

But one thing is for sure, he is not the current PM, nor holds any kind of government post.

9 hours ago, vinny41 said:

Thailand signed an FTA with China primarily through the Asean-China FTA framework around 20 years ago, setting zero tariffs on imports, including EVs.

At the time of the agreement, EVs were not yet widespread, and Thai officials understood "electric vehicles" as golf carts, believing they would have little impact on the domestic auto industry.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/motoring/3076800/tax-rejig-favours-evs-with-more-local-parts

 

And they just caught on that EV’s aren’t just golf carts?

 

Cudos to them for being so quick off the mark then.

11 hours ago, edwinchester said:

So Thailand negotiates a FTA then decide they don't like it and decide they want to increase tariffs. It's deja-vu all over again.

 

Oho, so Thaksin thinks he's Trump now?

 

You're not messin' with Canada, bub!

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Thailands domestic auto manufacturing/assembly being screwed by cheap subsidised Chinese EV's

 

Personally I don’t quite see it like that.

 

The way I look at it Thailand waived certain excise taxes so long as Chinese ev manufacturers assembled their cars in Thailand. I don’t profess to know the details but I believe that it is a recognized tax framework that is utilized by ICE car manufacturers also. The basic premise being that the more work carried out in Thailand, the lower the tax.

 

Seems to me that Chinese EV cars have become very popular and suddenly “the Thais” (meaning Thaksin apparently) are jealous at all the success and feel that they aren’t getting a big enough slice of the pie. Hence the sudden decision to revisit the previously agreed tax regime.

 

He might just have taken on an opponent bigger than him. Some Chinese EV makers are State affiliated companies and I expect the others have some informal connections to the Chinese government. They may take a dim view of renegotiating an agreed deal.

 

As to what a private individual has to do with government policy, well, that’s another whole can of worms.

8 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

EVs are the future and sales are increasing (other fuels <e.g. hydrogen> will no doubt come into the picture) and gasoline engine cars will ne douby continue to decrease.

 

Seems to me the Thai authorities need to create policies which help Thailand get out of the gasline engine market / manufacturing and get into EV manufacturing / marketing. 

 

If only they could convince some large corporation to establish an Asian manufacturing..............dare I say, hub,...........building low-cost EV pickups to compete with the 500K baht Toyota Champ....

 

 

.......before China beats 'em to it.

 

OOps!

 

 

Funny thing is, the Chinese model base price is similar to the Legolike Slate.

There are some EV brands in Thailand that do have local content of 40% or above as they have started exporting cars from April 2025 and export rules require 40% local content

if a Chinese car meets the 40% local content requirement and is certified as originating from Thailand, it will be exported within and outside the ASEAN region through the ASEAN FTA network.

https://www.thinkchina.sg/economy/made-thailand-chinese-evs-could-fill-auto-market

Toyota Thailand local content figure is 93%

Soon we were exporting models built entirely in Thailand like the Hilux Vigo and the Fortuner. To date over 7 million IMV based vehicles have been built in Thailand with over 4 million units exported to 124 countries around the world. The IMV project also helped us create a new supply chain here in Thailand increasing our network of local suppliers by 41%, as the production of 2,000 parts were transferred from Japan to Thailand increasing total local content from 60% to 93%

https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/38421226.html

 

For EV brands producing local content in Thailand the  component price is higher in Thailand compared to China due to economy of scale on parts orders

 

 

why is he commenting on anything, go back to jail were you belong 

10 hours ago, wensiensheng said:

Personally I don’t quite see it like that.

 

The way I look at it Thailand waived certain excise taxes so long as Chinese ev manufacturers assembled their cars in Thailand. I don’t profess to know the details but I believe that it is a recognized tax framework that is utilized by ICE car manufacturers also. The basic premise being that the more work carried out in Thailand, the lower the tax.

 

Seems to me that Chinese EV cars have become very popular and suddenly “the Thais” (meaning Thaksin apparently) are jealous at all the success and feel that they aren’t getting a big enough slice of the pie. Hence the sudden decision to revisit the previously agreed tax regime.

 

He might just have taken on an opponent bigger than him. Some Chinese EV makers are State affiliated companies and I expect the others have some informal connections to the Chinese government. They may take a dim view of renegotiating an agreed deal.

 

As to what a private individual has to do with government policy, well, that’s another whole can of worms.

It's not just the tax relief they get in Thailand for cars assembled here, The real issue is SOE's in China ie the major auto players are being subsidised by the government so that they can under-cut all other brands at the selling price.

This is so they can squeeze out the likes of Toyota, Honda, Isuzu etc.

While this may be attractive to the consumer, it's not fair trade.

22 hours ago, thesetat said:

When will Thaksins reign end?

 

When he's 6 feet under the ground ?

18 hours ago, JJ-Thailand said:

Is he in the government? 

 

15 hours ago, LALes said:

Who elected this guy PM?

  people with the name Baht

23 hours ago, thesetat said:

And in what position or authority is he using to make this proposition that apparently was given to someone important in the government? 

 

When will Thaksins reign end?

when he runs out of baht ..    or hopefully the courts will send him packing for real this time

23 hours ago, BritScot said:

He just so happens to be the man who rescued Thailand from Military incompetent rule and the baht crash. The only person who can hold his head up with GDP figures of over 14%, and the highest English proficiency results in Thailands history.  So all in all a very qualified guy! Now you will start spouting "Ah but he is a criminal, ah but , he was corrupt! First being ousted by a military coup, tarnished any conviction that followed then you will say currupt! Corruption rose sharply when the boys in green rolled their tanks into Bangkok!!! Figures of a 20% rise were mentioned by some. So, from 20% to 40% skim before anything done....

 

Why did Thaksin flee into exile if he was ‘ clean and green’, why did his sister also go into exile? Corrupt Politicians are everywhere, he is a fake! Out to become richer, Trumpian style Don’t be fooled by a few good things that he’s done in the past. A lucky criminal like Trump who is free! 

All Ex PM’s would have a list of their achievements, and may have opinions on making current changes but in other countries such advice becoming law will not be accepted. He was not elected!  He’s already interfered with affairs with Cambodia and many Thais believe he’s one of the causes of the war. He has a history with Cambodia, a corrupt one the Thais believe! Partly why his daughter has been suspended!

 I don’t hate him but he can be in an advisory capacity, not one of Authority. And go back to prison to serve his sentence first.

 He was trusted before and failed, can’t blame the military for it all!

 

 

 

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

It's not just the tax relief they get in Thailand for cars assembled here, The real issue is SOE's in China ie the major auto players are being subsidised by the government so that they can under-cut all other brands at the selling price.

This is so they can squeeze out the likes of Toyota, Honda, Isuzu etc.

While this may be attractive to the consumer, it's not fair trade.

Maybe. The Chinese cars are certainly extremely good value and Japanese manufacturers are the biggest losers so far as I can see.

But is Thailand that bothered about Japanese car manufacturers success? Either way, they aren’t Thai companies.

 

Or is it because Japanese car manufacturers do more in Thailand than Chinese car manufacturers? So a Japanese car manufactured in Thailand is worth more to the Thai economy that a Chinese car manufactured in Thailand? I don’t know the answer.

 

However, the deal was made with the Chinese manufacturers and one thing is for sure, there are more ev cars in Thailand than there would be without them. As a consumer, I’m very happy. As the Thai government, who cares if the Japanese companies get squeezed, they and their dealers in Thailand have used their market position to be pretty arrogant toward the consumer, in my personal experience 

3 hours ago, wensiensheng said:

Maybe. The Chinese cars are certainly extremely good value and Japanese manufacturers are the biggest losers so far as I can see.

But is Thailand that bothered about Japanese car manufacturers success? Either way, they aren’t Thai companies.

 

Or is it because Japanese car manufacturers do more in Thailand than Chinese car manufacturers? So a Japanese car manufactured in Thailand is worth more to the Thai economy that a Chinese car manufactured in Thailand? I don’t know the answer.

 

However, the deal was made with the Chinese manufacturers and one thing is for sure, there are more ev cars in Thailand than there would be without them. As a consumer, I’m very happy. As the Thai government, who cares if the Japanese companies get squeezed, they and their dealers in Thailand have used their market position to be pretty arrogant toward the consumer, in my personal experience 

If the Chinese auto master plan works and the Japanese cannot compete on prices, they will eventually start to relocate.

Japan will not sell cars at a loss just to compete with China, that's how companies go bankrupt.

The end result is China will have the major share, prices will start to rise and customer choice will be limited to which Chinese car do you want.

 

19 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

If the Chinese auto master plan works and the Japanese cannot compete on prices, they will eventually start to relocate.

Japan will not sell cars at a loss just to compete with China, that's how companies go bankrupt.

The end result is China will have the major share, prices will start to rise and customer choice will be limited to which Chinese car do you want.

 

True, although I think it’s true to say that Chinese companies are focused on EV vehicles and Japanese companies generally have a wider range that includes ICE vehicles, hybrids and even diesel pick up trucks.

 

And Thailand is often a manufacturing hub for Japanese manufacturers and serve all SE Asia markets. So the fact that they are selling less of a specific type of vehicle in Thailand doesn’t necessarily mean they will close down a whole plant here and go elsewhere. That would be costly in the short term.

 

I completely take your point though. The recent influx of Chinese cars reminds me a lot of when Japanese cars first made their entry into the UK market. British manufacturers couldn’t compete and we know what happened to them. But that was more about quality and price, rather than just price.

 

That said, how many pure EV’s do Japanese manufacturers make. Some for sure but they seem to me to be heavily focused on hybrids. And the Chinese EV’s aren’t JUST about price. The battery technology used by some brands  is groundbreaking.

 

Personally I think the Chinese are going to be the winners in the EV market and it’s always good to be aligned with winners. The Japanese have had their day to some extent.

14 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

I completely take your point though. The recent influx of Chinese cars reminds me a lot of when Japanese cars first made their entry into the UK market. British manufacturers couldn’t compete and we know what happened to them. But that was more about quality and price, rather than just price.

 

I agree on all your points

The same could be said for the motorcycle, when Yamaha,Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki came on the scene it eventually killed off the old Brit bikes.

At age 17 I admit I rode a Yamaha FS1E 50cc known as the Fizzy ..Mid 70's

Nice have a civilised debate with you.

20 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

 

I agree on all your points

The same could be said for the motorcycle, when Yamaha,Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki came on the scene it eventually killed off the old Brit bikes.

At age 17 I admit I rode a Yamaha FS1E 50cc known as the Fizzy ..Mid 70's

Nice have a civilised debate with you.

Haha, I had a FS1E myself. It was technically a moped because the foot rests could be converted to pedals, although no one did of course. Meant it could be ridden when a year younger. I eventually upgraded to a Honda 250 cc which was a new model and had upswept exhausts, a novelty at the time.

All the best

 

This thread seems to have died a death . Anybody any idea what the latest proposals are.