New Thailand PM Srettha Thavisin held talks with Elon Musk to discuss EV industry; investment expected
Recently-elected prime minister of Thailand, Srettha Thavisin met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk during a visit to New York, United States to discuss the electric vehicle industry, Reuters reported. Srettha was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
The news wire reported separately that the country is expected to receive investment of at least US$5 billion (RM23.4 billion) from companies including Tesla, Google and Microsoft.
“Tesla would be looking into an EV manufacturing facility, [while] Microsoft and Google are looking at data centres,” Srettha said on X (formerly Twitter), though it was not detailed whether the sum referred to a combined investment or invested individually by each company.
Thailand has been offering incentives to electric vehicle manufacturers and EV battery producers as well as tax cuts to local EV buyers in order to bolster its position as a regional automotive hub, according to Reuters.
Last December, Tesla officially entered the Thailand market with the brand’s launch of the Model 3 and Model Y in the country, with the carmaker’s Supercharger network in Thailand scheduled to go online earlier this year in February.
Tesla officially entered the Malaysian market with the launch of the Tesla Model Y in July this year, and also outlined its development plans for Malaysia. Its head office will be set up in Cyberjaya, and this will serve as its central hub for corporate operations, marketing, training and customer support activities.
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