Continental Automotive (Thailand) has opened its factory in Rayong province.

Producing fuel injectors and pumps initially and instrument clusters in the future, the plant is a sign that more suppliers are considering the Kingdom for parts production for the upcoming eco-car project.

The Eco-Car project will see about 600,000 cars produced in Thailand, and six auto-makers have shown strong interest:: Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Tata. While some of them have gone back to the discussion table for negotiations with the government, Continental officials are positive, any delays are temporary.

"In the year 2012, one out of every two cars will be produced in Asia. ASEAN has a strong potential for growth. Although the current economic climate has slowed things down, it will soon pick up again," said managing director Thomas Chambers.

The factory, situated in the Amata City Industrial Estate, has seen an investment of Bt5 billion and will slowly ramp up its production. It covers 50,000 square meters and has a production area of about 11,500 square meters. Designed to produce a maximum of 500,000 fuel pumps and 2.5 million fuel injectors, it will reach its full manufacturing capacity in 2013, with 600 employees. At present, 100 people are employed there.

"The investment in Thailand reflects our strategy of building and strengthening our network and our Asian manufacturing operations to reinforce our leading role in this region. Continental intends to hold a 25.per-cent market share in this region by 2013," said Powertrain Asia Continental senior vice president Volker Warnecke.

From November, all parts produced in Thailand will be exported to China, India and Europe. Local sales will start next year once fuel-pump production begins, after which about 70 per cent of production will be for the domestic market. About 40 per cent of parts will be locally sourced, with further increases in the future.

Continental believes four major mega-trends now predominate in the automotive industry. The safety mega-trend involves the growing need to reduce road fatalities. This will see more automobiles fitted with stability-control systems, anti-lock brakes, air bags and other safety-related components.

The environment mega-trend entails growing concern for the environment and will see cleaner and more fuel-efficient engines. Introduction of piezoelectric fuel injectors will become more common in engines.

The information mega-trend is the growing need for information display and transfer in a vehicle. This includes Bluetooth, liquid-crystal-display screens, iPod or USB connections and mobile-phone connections. This also includes how drivers are provided with information about the vehicle.

Finally and possibly one of the fastest growing mega-trends in this region is the affordable car. This refers mainly to small cars with small engines. The Eco-Car soon to be launched in Thailand is the perfect example of this.