Chinese sales rise in the best 4 markets in SE Asia by 58 % in the first quarter

Chinese vehicles with branded vehicles in the four main markets in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, increased by more than 58 % to 67558 units in the first quarter of 2025 compared to 43,646 units in the same period last year, as their automatic machines continued to expand their global in an attempt to rely on the home.

Several Chinese brands did not enter the markets except in the region last year, while the current players continued to expand their sales networks. In total, there are about twenty Chinese brands active in the southeastern region at the present time, where more than 10 % of the region’s sales in the first quarter of 2025-increasing slightly more than 6 % in the same period last year, in markets dominated by Japanese brands for several decades.

Governments in the region offer generous incentives to attract new investments in the automotive sector, especially to produce batteries that operate with batteries, hybrids and relevant supply chains, as part of their obligations to reduce carbon emissions. Competition for this investment is difficult, as some countries offer temporary exemptions for importing tariffs before local production and other tax incentives.

China is the largest producer of hybrid and electrical cars in the world, and its manufacturers have rushed to take the incentives offered. In most countries in the region, they already dominate the emerging Bev markets, in the absence of any major competition from the Japanese.

Thailand The largest market for Chinese brand cars remains, with sales of the first quarter of less than 27,000 units-an increase of 27 % on an annual basis, to calculate approximately 18 % of total vehicle sales in the country. BYD and Denza brand together formed more than 11,140 sales, followed by Saic Motor and GAC-AION with 4,760 units and 3,091 respectively.

Indonesia The second largest market for Chinese auto manufacturers in the first quarter was 161 % after sales to 21,270 units. They were slightly more than 10 % of the total market, up from 4 % in the previous year. About half of the active brands here entered the market only last year, mainly targeting the Bev sector. This includes byd which sold 8,820 Bevs in the first quarter. Wulling was the best-selling Chinese brand with 4,882 sales, followed by Chere with 4554 units-including models sold under its omoda, Jetour and JaeCoo brands.

Malaysia It was the third largest market in the region for Chinese brands, as sales of the first quarter increased by 53 % to 10,951 units. They were less than 6 % of total sales, however, the lowest penetration rate among the four markets included in the survey, with a large extent the largest player with about 6,826 sales. Proton did not include sales of Proton, which offers an increasing number of models from the Chinese Zhejiang Geely Holding group, which has 49.9 % of the company’s share.