BOI won’t relax eco-car rules

Thailand’s Board of Investment (BoI) will not change its criteria for privileges to promote the local manufacture of eco-cars despite calls from automakers for the conditions to be eased, says Arthit Vuthikaro, chief of the Industry Ministry’s Office of Industrial Economics, the Bangkok Post reports. Many automakers whose eco-car projects have already been approved for BoI privileges have now said they will unlikely be able to achieve the output target of 100,000 eco-cars by the fifth year of production. A senior official said that altering the criteria for the project would not be fair to those automakers who had already invested in meeting the eco-car regulations. (October 22, 2009)