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“We have rolled out almost 500 charging stations nationwide, mainly in Bangkok and vicinity,” Ahunai said, adding that the company holds almost 80% market share for charging stations in Thailand.
His focus on commercial vehicles is in line with Thailand’s policy to put some 70,000 commercial electric vehicles on the road annually.
“If we successfully secure [the commercial electric vehicle] segment … then we create economies of scale for us to go into the other segments,” such as passenger cars, Ahunai said.
Japanese, American and German automakers all have manufactured vehicles in Thailand, but despite the country’s auto-making expertise, it doesn’t have an internationally recognized vehicle brand of its own. Ahunai said he believes EVs could change that. He wants Energy Absolute to be front and center on that effort.
“We believe that by using [our] technology and Thailand’s [auto-making] infrastructure, we can use that to be the springboard to the global market,” Ahunai said. “At least, we can go into the ASEAN market, which has almost 600 million population. So, that is a good market for us at the beginning, to start with.”
Right now, the bulk of the company’s revenue still comes from renewable energy such as wind and solar, but Ahunai said his foray into commercial EVs will be an important source of future revenue.
“If you look at what we are investing [in] now,” he said, “it will totally change the revenue structure of the company in a few years’ time.”
