In Cars, Hybrids, EVs and Alternative Fuel, International News / By Anthony Lim / 4 February 2019 6:21 pm / 12 comments

More on the electric vehicle (EV) front within the region. Over in Thailand, Energy Absolute (EA) has announced that it – and its subsidiary companies – will be implementing three EV-related projects in the Kingdom following the granting of a series of incentives from the country’s Board of Investment (BoI) last year.

According to the Bangkok Post, the BoI privileges awarded to EA and its subsidiaries are a two billion baht (RM261.8 million) incentive for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries (awarded in May), a 1.092 billion baht (RM142.6 million) incentive for the construction of EV charging stations (in November), and an 130 million baht (RM17 million) grant for a R&D unit catering for the development of full EVs (in December).

Last week, the company said it is considering raising capital expenditures for the next phase of business investment to a combined 26.6 billion baht in spending this year. It added that some four billion baht will be used to construct an energy storage facility in Chachoengsao, within the country’s Eastern Economic Corridor.

A joint venture with Taiwan’s Amita Technologies will see EA developing lithium-ion batteries, which in phase two of the related project will produce units for EV applications, from 2021. The move to manufacture lithium-ion batteries domestically is something that is also being undertaken elsewhere in the region – both Malaysia and Indonesia have also signaled their intent to go into such production.

Subsidiary company Energy Mahanakhon, meanwhile, plans to set up 3,000 charging stations for plug-in hybrid and full EVs under the EA Anywhere brand nationwide, while another EA subsidiary, Mine Mobility Research is expecting to launch locally-made full EVs sometime in 2019.

According to EA VP for corporate communication Osmin Siri, the company will initially carry out research and development for Mine Mobility vehicles and utilise a local car assembler – which was not named – to build the EVs.

“EA will showcase EV prototypes at the Bangkok International Motor Show (BIMS) as we commit to EA’s plan to soon market Thai-made EVs,” she said, adding that once the Mine Mobility cars receive positive response from local motorists, the company will invest further to produce the EVs by itself.

At last year’s BIMS, Mine Mobility showcased a number of electric-based concepts that were based on sports car, MPV and city car platforms. The studies were equipped with 45 kWh, 30 kWh and 20 kWh batteries respectively, with an operating range of 250 km for the sports concept and 200 km for the MPV and city car.