Smart "borrowed" Proton to enter the Southeast Asian new energy vehicle market

Recently, Smart Auto (hereinafter referred to as "Smart") signed a memorandum of regional cooperation with Proton Motors Malaysia, which will establish a sales service network for the new generation of Smart pure electric vehicles in Thailand and Malaysia as a smart regional strategic partner, providing marketing, sales and after-sales service for local consumers.

Tong Xiangbei, Global CEO of Smart Brands, said: "Joining hands with Proton Motors to go to Southeast Asia is our forward-looking plan, and this cooperation will help Smart pre-deploy the new energy sector in Thailand and Malaysia. ”

ASEAN is considered to be another potential automotive market after China, with annual car sales of around 3.5 million vehicles over the past few years. Due to the decline in the impact of the epidemic in the past two years, the total sales volume of ASEAN vehicles is expected to be about 3 million in 2021. From the perspective of product structure, the main products sold in ASEAN are still fuel vehicles. However, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) believes that by 2025, the number of electric vehicles in Southeast Asia will reach nearly 10 million.

On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) officially entered into force, marking the official landing of the world's most populous, largest economic and trade area and the most potential for development. RCEP was initiated by ASEAN, and Guangxi, as the only province and region in the country connected to ASEAN by land and sea, pre-built the "Nanning Channel" for Deepening Cooperation between China and ASEAN, and sat on the first-mover advantage.

In order to better cultivate the ASEAN auto market, Smart has set up a genie automobile sales company in Nanning, Guangxi Province, taking advantage of Nanning's gateway to the ASEAN market to build a comprehensive business such as market sales, after-sales and export in the local area to expand cross-border business cooperation opportunities.

It is worth mentioning that smart was originally a small high-end car brand under Daimler Benz, and in 2019, Geely Automobile and Daimler Group jointly established a global joint venture company for the smart brand, jointly operating and promoting the transformation and upgrading of the smart brand into a pure electric vehicle brand on a global scale.

According to the plan, the smart pure electric SUV mass production model will be officially launched in 2022. Tong Xiangbei told the first financial reporter that smart is an asset-light model company, the main business chain is research and development and marketing services, the company will not build a factory in Malaysia, the new car will be mass production in China production base, and sold to the global market.