The Development of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in Thailand: Policies, Players, and Key Issues (2015–2020)

Abstract

This article explored the development of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Thailand between 2015 and 2020. This research aimed to study the main players and examine their goals, strategies, and operations in the EV charging business as well as the key issues that these charging operators have encountered in developing charging stations. The authors collected qualitative data (direct interviews with managers, video interviews, news, research articles, industry reports and press releases of EV charging operators) and used a constant comparison approach to analyze the data. The study found that after 2015, the Thai government created technology-push policies to kick-start the investment in the EV charging station business (such as subsidies for charging stations, setting a temporary selling price for electricity and building an EV charging consortium). The main players in the Thai charging business include: (1) oil and gas companies; (2) electricity state enterprises; (3) green energy companies; (4) start-ups; and (5) automotive companies. The goals of investing in the charging business for the oil and gas incumbents were to find a new growth engine and to prepare for the potential disruption in the energy sector whereas the green energy companies and start-ups wanted to capture customer bases in this promising industry. These players tended to use a partnership strategy to expand charging networks at key locations (malls, restaurants, offices). Regarding the key issues in expanding the EV charging network, the operators suggested that the high upfront investment costs, small number of EV users, and the high electricity prices (from the demand charge and usage guarantee fee) make them ‘wait-and-see’ and cautiously expand the charging network. Finally, we found that the government tried to address the constraints by setting up a national EV policy committee to accelerate EV adoption and EV charging stations in Thailand. The committee also set a fixed and reduced electricity price for charging operators.