Why Chinese electric cars are causing a buzz in Thailand

Name: Luxury shopping centres open new battleground for China’s electric car makers
Uploaded: 2021-11-27T04:00:22.000Z
Duration: 2 min 52 s
Description: Luxury shopping centres open new battleground for China’s electric car makers

With its pretty looks, attractive price and reasonable range, the Ora Good Cat of Great Wall Motor is setting records by appealing to young consumers and women

As Thailand embraces EVs, Chinese brands are stealing a march on more established Japanese rivals, but the country’s status as ‘Asia’s Detroit’ is under pressure from Indonesia

Reading Time:6 minutes

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Great Wall Motors’ Ora Good Cat is building a buzz in Thailand. Photo: Shutterstock

Jitsiree Thongnoi

Published: 12:00pm, 27 Nov 2021

Veteran Thai journalist Nithi Thuamprathom has covered the automotive industry for two decades but it was only recently, at an exhibition in Shanghai a few years ago, that Chinese electric cars first caught his attention.

“The show opened my eyes to how much China has progressed in developing its electric cars,” he said. “I had visited car shows in Europe for 10 years, but it was in China that I was very impressed with the car products on display.”

When Great Wall Motor – a Chinese carmaker that’s still a newcomer in the Thai market long dominated by Japanese brands – last month released the Haomao or Ora Good Cat, it received more than 4,200 pre-orders in less than 24 hours, a record for zero-emission cars in Thailand and a figure that eclipsed even the previous high for annual sales of battery-run EVs in the kingdom.

“Irrespective of technology, the Ora Good Cat looks so pretty and attracts lots of young consumers to want to try it,” Nithi said.

“The EV market in Thailand is also slowly changing. Men used to be the biggest EV consumers because they were willing to try it, but now there are more women. And the Good Cat is both functional and fashionable. The driving range and the prices are very reasonable.”

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Luxury shopping centres open new battleground for China’s electric car makers

The rise of Chinese EVs

The Ora Good Cat is priced between 989,000 baht and 1.1 million baht (US$30,000-US$35,000) in Thailand and has a range of between 400km and 500km. The first batch of vehicles have been imported from China, but Great Wall Motor (GWM) is looking to begin local production in 2023.