Thailand's Department of Foreign Trade held discussions with Chinese EV manufacturers GWM and SAIC (21–24 September) to expand domestic production of critical EV components: batteries, motors, control systems, software, and design work. The government aims to increase local content requirements and supply-chain linkages, leveraging origin-of-goods rules to access regional export markets while mitigating trade-diversion risks. EV exports reached $266.41M in the first seven months of 2026, a modest 0.32% YoY gain.