By end of 2022, a fully-electric Mercedes-EQS will roll off a production line in Bangkok to mark another milestone in Thailand’s remarkable journey from conventional automaking hub to regional frontrunner in electric vehicle (EV) production.
The German luxury carmaker not only chose Thailand as its first location in Southeast Asia to manufacture the trail-blazing EQS, but also selected the Kingdom as one of only seven locations in the world to produce the high-performance lithium-ion batteries that can power the vehicle for more than 700 kilometers on a single charge.
“This shows how important Thailand is to us,” Roland Folger, President & CEO of Mercedes-Benz’s Thai business, said in an interview. “The EQS is the absolute highlight of our full battery vehicles — the topmost as far as technology is concerned. In Thailand, we have partners we know can deliver.”
Mercedes-Benz, which has been building cars in Thailand for the local market since 1979 and last year reported a pandemic-defying 13 percent increase in sales, now hopes to start exporting vehicles from its Bangkok factory, Folger says. And it is far from alone in betting its regional EV ambitions on a country that has grown to become the world’s 10th biggest auto manufacturer in 2021 while simultaneously devising an environmentally friendly growth model to fight climate change.
