Mainland EV makers like BYD have potential to establish foothold in Southeast Asian markets, panel at Post's China Conference hears

China's home-grown electric-vehicle (EV) brands have the potential to establish a foothold in Southeast Asia's automobile markets, but these original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) need to establish their brands in the minds of the consumer, a panel at the Post's China Conference: Southeast Asia in Singapore heard on Thursday.

"This could be the era of the so-called Chinese OEMs, because they are quite leading in terms of [battery-powered] cars," Jasmmine Wong, CEO of Inchcape Greater China and Singapore, told the panel, which was called "Driving into the Fossil Fuel Free Future in Asia: the electric vehicle ecosystem in Southeast Asia". "If you look at BYD and some of the very established Chinese brands ... the quality, and the so-called range and technology is far, far superior."

BYD, the world's largest EV marker, more than tripled its 2022 sales to 1.86 million units, most of them in China. The Hong Kong and Shenzhen-listed carmaker's sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars started to climb in the second quarter of 2022, helping it dethrone Tesla as the world's largest EV firm.

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"[China's EV brands] have a lot of potential, but what they really need to build are trust and credentials, and also credibility in the mind of the consumer," Wong said. "People need to get used to the Chinese OEM brand, and the brand must mean something. [There] must be a pledge to the consumer in terms of safety. All this takes time to build."

Jasmmine Wong, CEO of Inchcape Greater China and Singapore. Photo: Handout alt=Jasmmine Wong, CEO of Inchcape Greater China and Singapore. Photo: Handout>

Founded by Chinese billionaire Wang Chuanfu in 1995, BYD has been making vehicles since 2003. The initials of the brand stand for "Build Your Dream".

BYD mainly sells cars in mainland China, but is looking to become a global player with plans to expand in some overseas markets. It launched an SUV in Thailand last October.

"More countries are adopting [EVs], and Chinese OEMs have been very aggressively coming into Southeast Asian markets like Indonesia and Thailand," Wong said. "I think they are here to stay. They are probably the only ones that till today, are able to give very economic offerings of affordable EVs, compared to the other branded OEMs."

Most of BYD's vehicles are priced below 200,000 yuan (US$29,054), compared with about 300,000 yuan for smart EVs.

BYD was the second most popular EV brand in Singapore last year, just 89 units short of Tesla, according to data on new annual registrations of cars by the city state's Land Transport Authority (LTA).

Wee Shann Lam, deputy CEO (technology), at Singapore's Land Transport Authority. Photo: Handout alt=Wee Shann Lam, deputy CEO (technology), at Singapore's Land Transport Authority. Photo: Handout>

Singapore's EV ecosystem - unlike China's - is still at a very early stage, Wee Shann Lam, deputy CEO (technology) at LTA, told the panel.

The Singapore government in February 2021 launched a road map called Green Plan 2030 that outlined the country's green targets over the next 10 years. Under its targets for cleaner energy vehicles, Singapore planned to cease all new registrations of diesel cars and taxis from 2025, and have chargers installed at all public car parks.

EVs made up around 11.8 per cent of all car registrations in Singapore last year, said Lam. This was up from almost 4 per cent in 2021, according to the LTA.

Meanwhile in China, around 26.86 million vehicles were sold last year, with more than 6.8 million units - or more than 25 per cent - being EVs, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. In 2021, 3.5 million EVs were sold, accounting for 13.4 per cent of the total number of vehicles sold.

"We've reached this tipping point in EV sales within China," Graeme Baker, sustainable equity portfolio manager at asset manager Ninety One, said in an interview. "You see very strong year-on-year growth - we expect that to continue.

"With China coming out of Covid-19 lockdowns, we do expect to see some positive growth in that area."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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