Posted on 23 Jul 2024
The Thai government plans to continue investigations on Chinese automaker BYD's discounts, according to reports citing Passakron Thampmongkol, senior officer at the Consumer Protection Board of Thailand.
Kallanish Power Materials is still waiting for the board's response on this issue.
According to media reports by local newspapers such as Kaohoo International, customers who already purchased BYD cars felt dissatisfied about the recent price cuts, which they missed out on, as they considered they overpaid for the cars.
The report says: "Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin urged BYD ceo Wang Chuanfu to safeguard consumer interests, to which Wang committed to ensuring appropriate pricing strategies in the future."
Rever Automotive, in which BYD holds a 20% stake, is BYD's distributor in Thailand. It recently launched a cash-back initiative and discounts at charging stations. These incentives will be available until March 2025. Existing BYD customers can receive cash back of up to THB 50,000 baht on their next purchase of the ATTO 3 or BYD Seal models from 18 July to the end of August.
Despite the compensation programme, according to the report, the board insists it will investigate the automaker.
On 1 July in Thailand, BYD announced that the upgraded version of Atto 3 has a price reduction of THB 100,000-340,000 ($2,754-9,366) per vehicle. It also announced discounts of THB 140,000-160,000 on its Dolphin models. This was significantly more than the previous campaign's discount of around THB 40,000.
Meanwhile, according to a report released on 5 July, Wissanu Wongsinsirikul, secretary general of the Trade Competition Commission Thailand said Rever Automotive did not violate the Trade Competition Act by lowering prices on BYD's EV models.
The report said he explained that if BYD lowered its prices and simultaneously pressured partners or suppliers to do the same, it could potentially breach competition laws, but BYD's actions so far do not indicate such behavior. Still, he stressed the need to verify whether BYD has set selling prices below their production costs.
Source:Kallanish Power Materials
