Thailand investigates dealers of electric vehicle giant BYD over unfair discounts complaint

BANGKOK: Thai authorities are investigating BYD dealerships after a consumer complaint about aggressive discounting in a key international market for the Chinese electric vehicle giant left some buyers unhappy with the price they paid for their cars.

The Thai prime minister’s office has asked the country’s consumer protection agency to open an investigation.

The case was sparked after a BYD customer alleged that a sales representative claimed the price of the customer’s car would increase after a discount campaign ended, but instead the dealership aggressively slashed the price, according to a government statement.

Officials at BYD in Thailand and its exclusive distributor Rever Automotive, which has a network of more than 100 dealerships, did not immediately respond to Reuters emails seeking comment.

“We have called the dealers to come this week to clarify why they have cut prices further and how they plan to find a solution for customers,” Passakorn Thapmongkol, a senior official at the Consumer Protection Council, told Reuters.

In a BYD owners group on Facebook, other Thai customers shared similar complaints.

“The seller said the prices would go up after the motor show, but in the end they really went down,” Facebook user Thanasit Chai said in a post on Wednesday, referring to the Bangkok Motor Show held in March.

Thailand is the largest overseas market for the world’s largest electric vehicle maker. BYD held a 46% share of Thailand’s electric vehicle market in the first quarter and is the third-largest player in the passenger car sector with a share of about 9%, according to research firm Counterpoint.

Other competitors in the electric vehicle market include Great Wall Motor and Tesla.

BYD is set to open its first electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Southeast Asia in Thailand’s eastern Rayong province on Thursday. The automaker plans to invest about $490 million in the plant to produce 150,000 cars a year.

BYD, headquartered in Shenzhen, currently sells four models in Thailand, with prices ranging from 699,999 baht to 1.59 million baht ($19,000 to $43,200), according to Rever’s website.

Led by BYD and Vietnam’s VinFast, sales of electric vehicles in Southeast Asia have more than doubled since last year, at the expense of Japanese and Korean makers of traditional gasoline-powered models.

($1 = 36.8000 baht)