In December 2023, Neta announced the completion of its 20,000 units per year capacity plant in Thailand. The company has since followed up on its progress, confirming that the first batch of Thailand-assembled (CKD) right-hand drive cars – a first outside of China – will reach customers by April 2024. The plant is in the outskirts of Bangkok, built in partnership with Neta’s local partner Bangchan General Assembly. Currently, the plant only makes one model, the Neta V-II, a facelift version of t

Electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla is set to enter Malaysia officially as announced by Tengku Zafrul, the Minister of International Trade & Industry (MITI). Tesla will establish a head office, experience (showrooms) and service centres here, alongside setting up their fast-charging Supercharger network. The minister added that the American carmaker was the first applicant of MITI's BEV Global Leaders initiative that's aimed to spur EV demand here. Malaysia Welcomes @Tesla! @MITIMalaysia has appro

A bit of a mind bender eh? The answer is Laos, and this is their 2023 Toyota Vios that's just been introduced there. It's the first left-hand drive (LHD) version of the car, and also the first to officially wear the 'Vios' name – in Thailand where it made its global debut, it's sold as the Yaris Ativ. Laos is also the second country to get the Honda City fighter in our ASEAN region. It's pretty well-specced as it is: there are LED headlights, LED tail lights with sequential indicators, and snazz

Electric vehicles (EVs) only account for a small percentage of new car sales in Thailand but the government is encouraging more EV companies to invest in the Kingdom as it aims to be a regional EV hub by 2035. Joining the likes of GWM’s Ora, MG, and BYD is Hozon Auto. Like the other brands, Hozon comes from China and its models bear the Neta badge, which was officially introduced in Thailand this week. Unlike BYD’s Thai distributor, Rêver Automotive, an actual Neta model was also shown during th

Mazda has announced today that it will be launching 5 new SUV models starting 2022. The models are: Mazda CX-50, CX-60, CX-70, CX-80, and CX-90. Out of these 5 models, the 50, 70, and 90 series cars will be aimed primarily at North American buyers, while the 60 and 80 series cars will be sold in Japan and Europe. In other words, models with the odd number 5, 7, and 9 are for USA and Canada while the even number 6 and 8 ones are for the rest of the world. However this doesn’t necessarily mean tha

Following Perodua’s sales growth for the month of October, UMW is on another roll with its other automotive segment, UMW Toyota (UMWT) posting positive sales in the same month. According to a statement, UMWT has sold 6,468 units in October. This is a 15.4% increase from the 5,605 units that were sold in the previous month. This gives the total number of Toyota units sold in the first 10 months of 2020 to 43,807 units, which are on track to reach its revised sales target of 53,000 units for the y