BYD's passenger-car factory in Rayong, Thailand, has now built 100,000 new energy vehicles, reaching the figure about 26 months after production began in July 2024. The milestone car, which came off the line on September 21, was a white Atto 3 — fittingly, the compact electric SUV that served as BYD's debut model when it entered the Thai market in 2022.
Localization runs deep at the site: Thai employees make up 95% of the workforce, up from roughly 93% in July, and about half of the plant's purchasing comes from within the country. Five models have earned Made in Thailand certification, and BYD says it has created more than 5,000 jobs in the country.
The Rayong facility, located in the WHA Industrial Estate, is BYD's first wholly owned overseas passenger-car plant, with a design capacity of 150,000 units per year. Its ramp-up has been steady — the 10,000th vehicle came in November 2024 and the 70,000th in November 2025, followed by roughly 30,000 more in the ten months since. The locally built lineup spans the Dolphin, Atto 3, Seal 5 DM-i, Sealion 5 DM-i and Sealion 6 DM-i.
Thailand is BYD's most important market in the Asia-Pacific region, with cumulative sales there topping 130,000 units as of July, imports included. The factory doubles as an export hub: its first European shipment left in August 2025, carrying over 900 Dolphins to the UK, Germany and Belgium. With tariffs and trade barriers on the rise, overseas manufacturing is becoming ever more crucial to BYD, which says it will keep deepening local production, talent development and its Thai supply chain.