As one of the pillars of South Korea's economy, the automobile industry is naturally moving forward and developing continuously, actively participating in the electric vehicle field, and constantly expanding its overseas market, facing other major electric vehicle countries head-

As one of the pillars of South Korea's economy, the automobile industry is naturally moving forward and developing continuously, actively participating in the electric vehicle field, and constantly expanding its overseas market, facing other major electric vehicle countries head-on. At present, fierce market competition is emerging in Southeast Asia.

According to Korean media reports, as South Korea's Hyundai Motor strengthens its layout in Southeast Asia, BYD has also built a factory in Thailand, making Southeast Asia a new battlefield for head-on confrontation between China and South Korea electric vehicle manufacturers.

"BusinessKorea" reports that BYD, the world's second largest electric vehicle manufacturer and the third largest automotive battery manufacturer, decided to invest 17.9 billion baht (about 491 million US dollars) to build its first overseas factory in Thailand. It is expected to be put into production in 2024 with an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles, mainly focusing on the rapidly growing Southeast Asian electric vehicle market.

report pointed out that BYD produces its own electric vehicle batteries, so it has a competitive advantage in price. It is also independently developing intelligent driving chips, hoping to use to vertically integrate electric vehicle core technology to distance itself from other competitors, and compete with the leader Tesla .

Southeast Asian electric vehicle market has huge growth potential and is one of the important goals of Hyundai Motor . Other electric vehicle companies are naturally unwilling to be absent. The Thai government has set a goal to increase the share of electric vehicles in new car sales to 30% by 2030.

In March this year, Hyundai Motor opened its factory in Deltamas Industrial Park in Bekasi, Indonesia, and is its first production base in ASEAN to produce the new pure electric car IONIQ 5, which has received high attention from the Indonesian government.

According to data from market research company Marklines, Hyundai Motor's market share in Indonesian jumped from 0.3% in August 2021 to 5.9% in August 2022, making it the sixth largest automobile brand in Indonesia.

Southeast Asia is currently one of the main export destinations for China's new energy vehicles. Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Vehicle Association, cited customs data in an interview, saying that China exported 362,200 new energy vehicles in the first half of this year, more than double the same period last year. The total sales volume in Southeast Asia was 58,400 vehicles, accounting for 16%, second only to ,700 vehicles in Western Europe .

Automobile industry insiders pointed out that Japanese brands have more than 90% of sales performance in the Southeast Asian market and occupy a monopoly position, but Japanese brands are behind in the transformation of electric vehicles. Hyundai and Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers are fighting fiercely in Southeast Asia, which will ignite a new round of war.

Of course, the situation is not completely optimistic. In Southeast Asia, one of the main reasons why pure trams are not developing fast enough is the lack of charging station networks. Some critics also pointed out that the development of pure trams will not help solve the carbon dioxide emissions in Southeast Asia, because power plants in the region use a lot of traditional fossil energy.

It is reported that in Southeast Asia, Japanese car manufacturers tend to promote plug-in hybrid cars. Automakers in China and South Korea are building charging station networks in Southeast Asia to cultivate a pure tram market.