Key Points

The South Korean automaker received approval from Thailand's Board of Investment for a 1-billion-baht (around $ 31.04 million) project in August 2024 to build an EV and EV battery production plant, while also announcing plans to invest 680 billion won ($485.6 million) over five years in Malaysia from 2025 onwards.

With few strong local brands and a tariff-free competitive landscape, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market is becoming the key battleground for automakers from Korea, China, and Japan.

For Hyundai, which has spent years trying to break into ASEAN - long considered a "difficult market" due to Japanese automakers' entrenched dominance - the priority is now expected to shift from competing with Japanese automakers to fending off those from China.

The disruption in the finished car market of the six major ASEAN countries stems from EVs. According to data from major Southeast Asian countries and analyses from consulting firms such as PwC that were released on Monday, Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., the top automaker in the region, saw its sales in the first half of 2025 decline by 1 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Hyundai Motor, ranked thirteenth overall, also saw an 8 per cent drop.

By contrast, Vietnamese EV maker VinFast Auto Ltd. surged by 102 per cent year-on-year during the same period, jumping four spots from eleventh to seventh. China's BYD Auto Co. likewise soared by 144 per cent, climbing into ninth place.

China's momentum is especially striking in individual markets. In Indonesia - ASEAN's largest car market with annual sales of 300,000 to 400,000 units - BYD grew explosively to 14,092 units in the first half of 2025 from just 1,596 vehicles in the same period a year earlier. Hyundai, on the other hand, which had outpaced BYD with 12,044 units in the first half of 2024, actually saw negative growth in 2025 with 11,188 units.

Indonesia is also where Hyundai has invested most heavily, establishing its first ASEAN production plant in 2022 and completing the HLI Green Power battery cell plant, a joint venture with LG Energy Solution Ltd., in 2024 to bolster the local EV ecosystem. Chinese automakers such as Chery Automobile Co. and BYD sharply increased their sales in Malaysia as well.

What makes the situation more pressing is that major Chinese automakers are planning aggressive local investment to expand production in ASEAN. BYD aims to build an annual production capacity of 300,000 units in Indonesia and Thailand by 2030. For its part, Chery is planning for 180,000 units in Malaysia and Thailand, while Wuling Motors Holdings Ltd. is targeting 120,000 units in Indonesia.

VinFast is also adding facilities in Vietnam and Indonesia capable of producing 200,000 units annually.

All this suggests it will not be easy for Hyundai to overcome China's aggressive expansion.

"The ASEAN market is a race for speed and localisation," an official from the Korea Automobile & Mobility Association (KAMA) noted. "Hyundai must pivot more aggressively by expanding production bases and strengthening dealer networks."

However, uncertainty remains about whether China's low-cost EV offensive - powered by models equipped with cheaper lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries - can succeed in the medium to long term. Hyundai is thus actively considering deploying LFP-based models in Southeast Asia, signaling its intention to sharpen competitiveness through localization.

"We are closely monitoring the rise of Chinese EVs," a Hyundai official said. "We will also step up efforts to capture the ASEAN market with a wider range of models at different price points and differentiated competitiveness."

- ANI