EV Primus Ltd began assembling the Wuling Binguo compact battery electric vehicle (BEV) earlier this month at a newly-built plant in Chonburi, just east of Thailand’s capital city Bangkok.

According to local reports the THB200m (US$6m) facility, located in the Laem Chabang Industrial Estate, is jointly owned by SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) and its local distributor EV Primus and has an initial production capacity of 10,000 units per year.

EV Primus began selling the Binguo in Thailand three months ago and has received 800 orders so far. It is targeting sales of over 1,000 units by the end of the year. The company also sells the Wuling Air mini-BEV in the country, with combined deliveries of the two models having reached 1,800 to-date.

EV Primus’ CEO Pitaya Tanadamrongsak told local reporters that his company plans to produce six models at the plant by 2027, including two this year.  He claims the Binguo already has a local (regional) content of 50% and aims to increase this to 60-70% by 2026.

SGMW has a major production facility in Indonesia, which it opened in 2017, with 19,429 vehicles produced in the first eleven months of 2024 – including the Air, Cloud and Binguo BEVs.

According to industry data, a total of 59,000 BEVs were sold in Thailand in the first ten months of 2024, after sales surged to 76,000 units last year from around 10,000 units in 2022.