Thailand’s state-owned energy group PTT is slated to nearly triple its investments this year from the 33.3 billion baht (RM4.37 billion) it had planned for 2023. According to a news report published by the Nikkei, the oil and gas giant is expanding its scope of investment to 93.5 billion baht (RM12.3 billion) in preparation for its push into electrification.
Its joint venture electric vehicle (EV) unit, Horizon Plus, formed with Taiwan’s Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry), is gearing up to produce its first EVs in 2024. It was reported last November that the partnership was investing around 37 billion baht (RM4.9 billion) into the project, with the bulk of the spend being on the EV assembly plant being constructed at Rojana Nongyai Industrial Park.
The PTT group is also set to move into the area of EV battery production, with the intention of making the country the battery production hub for the region. Earlier this month, it announced it had reached an agreement with Chinese EV battery giant CATL on EV battery cell-to-pack (CTP) cooperation in Thailand.
It also entered into a partnership with Chinese battery maker Gotion High-tech last year through Nuovo Plus (a JV between its subsidiary Arun Plus and its power generation arm Global Power Synergy) to collaborate on the design, development, manufacturing as well as the sales and export of battery modules and packs products.
Separately, its investment this year in the “transmission” category, which covers natural gas pipelines, has increased to 7.9 billion baht (RM1.04 billion) from 7.5 billion baht (RM994 million).
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Looks like Thailand is sprinting ahead of Malaysia really fast. Every single day we delay the BRI rail construction,evryday we are losing potential investment. When we decide to complete the project after we lose so much then guess what, its too late. all companies already settled down in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.