ASEAN gearing up to be global green auto hub

Southeast Asia is gearing up to become a global hub for the production and sale of environmentally friendly cars, a Thai deputy cabinet minister said. Trade ministry officials from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) assigned regional industry bodies to draft common guidelines for green cars, hoping to leverage Thailand’s role as an auto manufacturing hub and large car markets in Indonesia and Malaysia. “ASEAN’s aim is to be a global auto production base,” Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Polabutr told a news conference. Thailand is already pursuing this route by promoting a policy for a flexible fuel vehicle, which can use a mix of 85% ethanol with 15% conventional gasoline, he said. (October 22, 2009)