German carmaker BMW Group Thailand is upbeat about the prospects of its electric cars in the Thai market, saying its plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) has been well accepted by motorists here.
Sales of its iPerformance, or PHEV models, surged 234% to 852 deliveries from January to October, contributing 10.2% to the total BMW cars sold in Thailand. Altogether 8,344 units were sold in the same period, a 28% rise.
Lars Nielsen, sales and marketing director for BMW Thailand, said the company is very happy with the performance of all its six PHEVs, five of which are assembled at the Rayong plant run by BMW Group Manufacturing Thailand.
He said BMW entered the PHEV segment in Thailand in December 2015 with the BMW X5, and expanded to variant models with prices ranging from 2.6 to 11.8 million baht.
"The high-technology cars should be available to more customers in the country, but BMW also wants to support the market with many electric models," he said.
Mr Nielsen said Thailand and Malaysia are major markets for BMW iPerformance, along with China, South Korea and Japan, so BMW believes there is more room for growth. For the Thai market, it is ramping up production in anticipation of future automotive trends.
Mr Nielsen said BMW will introduce two PHEVs for the 5 Series and one for the 3 Series at the coming Thailand International Motor Expo on Nov 30- Dec 11. All are assembled locally.
The Rayong plant makes eight PHEV models in the family of BMW 330e, 530e, 740Le and X5 xDrive40e.
At the auto show, BMW will also launch four more models, including an all-new BMW X3, one for Mini and one for BMW Motorrad motorcycle.
Mr Nielsen said the Munich-based parent company is also seeking to localise the production of electric cars more at the Rayong plant. It is working closely with other relevant government agencies on new automotive technology.
From 2000 to 2017, the carmaker invested about 4.6 billion baht in its Amata City Industrial Estate plant, of which 488 million was used in 2016 to support the expansion of BMW's PHEV models.