Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker, BYD is putting its foot down for a global expansion in 2022 with models announced for Australia, Singapore, and more recently, Japan. Soon, another market will be added which is Thailand.
BYD will be distributed by Rêver Automotive Company Limited and will be making its launch in the Kingdom on 8-August 2022. The company is said to be associated with the Siam Motors Group.
BYD's commercial vehicles are brought into Thailand by another company, Siam ATR which has no ties with the Siam Motors Group
It is the same group which introduced and distributed Nissan in the Kingdom for more than 40 years between 1962 and 2004.
BYD Japan's launch, the Thai launch might not even feature actual cars
According to Headlight Mag, the launching of Rêver Automotive on Monday will not be featuring any actual models as they are still in the process of obtaining approval from the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI).
The Thai automotive publication speculated that BYD’s Thai offering could follow that of Japan with up to 3 models to be introduced in the Kingdom in the next few years. These include the Atto 3 e-SUV, the Dolphin electric city car, and the Seal performance EV.
Spearheading BYD’s EV line-up is the Atto 3 which is also called the Yuan Plus in China. The Atto 3 was recently launched in Singapore and in the city-island, it is powered by a 204 PS/310 Nm electric motor with a claimed driving range of 480 km on the NEDC cycle.
Juicing up the Singapore-spec Atto 3 is a 60.5 kWh BYD Blade battery with a high-speed DC charging capacity of up to 80 kW.
Meanwhile, the BYD Dolphin was already speculated as one of the models planned for Thailand. The city car will be competing with the if it were to be launched here.
Powered by a single 177 PS/290 Nm electric motor and juiced up by a 44.9 kWh Blade battery pack, the Dolphin has a range of 405 km on the NEDC cycle.
Both the Dolphin and Seal are part of BYD’s Ocean series and the latter is just launched in China. Billed as a Tesla competitor, the Seal is an attractive alternative with more than 20,000 pre-orders received within 6 hours of its announcement.
With four variants offered, the Seal has a power output that range from 201 PS to 523 PS. The most powerful variant, aptly called the Performance has a claimed 0-100 km/h time of 3.8 seconds.
Can BYD sink or swim in Thailand?
As exciting as these models are, they could be a bit more expensive than those offered by MG or Ora in the Kingdom. It’s likely that these models would be fully imported though there might be plans for BYD to set up local assembly in Thailand as previously reported.
This could be the first BYD model for Malaysia
Closer to home, we previously reported that BYD could be opening an assembly plant in Tanjung Malim but the models planned to be produced are from the company’s commercial vehicle division. CSH Alliance Bhd’s subsidiary Alliance EV Sdn Bhd was appointed as the distributor in April 2022 so could there be a different distributor if the likes of the Atto 3 and Dolphin are to be brought over into Malaysia?
Keyword: Ex-Nissan Thailand distributor to launch BYD in the Kingdom on 8-Aug