It appears that Tesla is officially setting foot in Thailand, after documents of its registration with the Kingdom’s ministry of commerce cropped up on social media.
According to a Twitter user, Tesla Thailand is registered for the sale of “new passenger vehicles, pick-up trucks, vans, and similar light motor vehicles.” Not much else is known at the moment, but a key individual named in the filing is one David Jon Feinstein, Tesla’s global senior director for trade market access.
In January 2021, Feinstein was appointed as director of Tesla India, but the automaker has yet to make its official entry into the world’s second most populous nation. This is because Tesla is still lobbying for lower import taxes, but the Indian government is pushing it to commit to local assembly.
@Tesla is coming to Thailand (reg. on 4/25)! In the filing, the first name is David Jon Feinstein, Global Senior Director, Trade Market Access, at Tesla that was appointed to Director of Tesla India in January 2021. Thank you, @elonmusk ??. Can we also have a giga factory? pic.twitter.com/wUykL5YMyd
— Ekapob (@ekapobkul) May 24, 2022
Meanwhile, Tesla has been circling the region to set up shop. So far, Indonesia seems to be the most prospective market – talks have been going on for some time now, and it seems that the American carmaker has agreed to build a battery and EV factory at an industrial complex in the Central Java province.
No official announcement was made by the Indonesian government thus far, but it did say that Tesla will be entering the market sometime this year. The only ASEAN country with an official Tesla retail presence so far is Singapore.
There’s no word on a Malaysian retail presence, but there is the intention to establish supercharger sites, presumably to support Singaporean Tesla vehicles driving on Malaysian roads.
I guess for Tesla between Singapore and Thailand is just a scenic route through the rainforest for the supercharger highway. Maybe the local populace will worship the cars from their tree houses as the cars pass-by.
Which is why PM Sabri was smart enough to:
https://paultan.org/2022/05/13/tesla-open-to-idea-of-establishing-supercharger-network-in-malaysia-willing-to-discuss-further-mida/
He knows that 70% of car ownership is in the service and refuel, so we get the best of both countries, since Tesla have not made a 1000km range EV yet.
Kudos to a far visioned PM.
Haha so despite the courtship by Indonesia and Malaysia it was Thailand that quietly got the deal with Tesla. The silent mouse gets the cheese while the roaring lions got nothing.
Indonesia wants a Tesla Factory la, Malaysia too. This Thailand filing is to sell cars officially, like Singapore.
Haha shame on us. Next will be the Philippines announcing Tesla has entered their market.
Shame what. We have VW
https://paultan.org/2022/05/25/volkswagen-to-overtake-tesla-ev-sales-by-2025-ceo/
Shiok sendiri. Face the truth, the most prominents are not interested in the tanah malayu.
Meanwhile Malaysia will be left behind with just the Supercharger and no retail sales of Tesla cars in the country for the years to come.
tsakut apa, malaysia ada porsches – azmin