Nex Point collaborates with Dayun Automotive: Who is Dayun? Only two electric vehicles in its portfolio?

On May 23, Nex Point and China's Dayun Automotive signed a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly produce small electric vehicles in Thailand. In the initial stage, Nex Point will import the small electric SUV brand Yuehe for marketing and testing consumer response to ensure feasibility of further investments.

Dayun Automotive is located in Shanxi Province, China, with a registered capital of 1.07 billion CNY, covering an area of more than 1700 mu and a construction area of about 500,000 square meters. Dayun Automotive mainly focuses on heavy trucks, neutral trucks, and pickups, with only 2 new energy models under its brand, namely the Yuanzhi M1 and Yuehe that is now arriving on the Thai market.

Nex Point is considering participating in the EV3.5 national electric vehicle incentive plan, selling SUVs at a price lower than 490,000 THB. According to Dayun Automotive's official website, Yuehe currently has four colors available to choose from, with a price in China of 63,800 (approximately 329,139 THB) to 86,900 CNY (448,311 THB). This indicates that the vehicle's original cost is relatively low in China, and the factors influencing its price in the Thai market will mainly be taxes and the subsequent local production costs in Thailand.

Thailand's government has always been quite lenient with car import policies. The Thai EV3.5 policy aims to promote the growth of the electric vehicle industry from 2024 to 2027, including subsidies, reduction of whole vehicle import tariffs, and reduction of consumption tax. Worth noting is that, electric vehicle manufacturers joining EV3.5 must produce electric vehicles in Thailand starting from 2026, thus the mode of cooperating with foreign car companies to produce is gradually becoming a trend.

The early Thai car market share was occupied by Japanese auto companies. The cooperation between Nex Point and Dayun Automotive highlights the presence of Chinese electric vehicles in the Thai market. Previously, seven Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers pledged to use Thailand as a production base: BYD, MG, GWM, Neta, CHANGAN, GAC Aion and CHERY.