‘Energy Absolute’ aspires to be the Thai Government’s primary provider of Electric Vehicles for the entire civil servant transportation system after the Bangkok Council prepares to issue a law mandating the transition from petrol buses to EV buses within seven years, according to analysts.
Mr. Amorn Sapthaweekul, Vice CEO of Energy Absolute Public Company Limited, addresses the company’s ability to deliver additional EV buses to Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) in response to the “Future Bus Act” plan, which aims to transition combustion engine buses to electric buses within the next seven years.
Mr. Puttipat Thanyathamnon, the act’s major proponent, stated that the legislation will go into force once the Bangkok Metropolitan Council approves it. Following the approval, the change must be implemented within one year. However, certain buses remain to be subsidized by the government for another seven years, but they will be the final batch of combustion engine buses.
Currently, Energy Absolute offers the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority with 1,900 electric buses. The company also stated that they are prepared to deliver more EV buses in response to the upcoming BMTA bidding for EV bus suppliers.
As governmental policy changes affect not only buses for mass transportation, but also government official shuttle buses, government cargo buses, school buses, and coach buses, all of which are targeted by Energy Absolute to contribute to the change.
In terms of Energy Absolute current backlog, the company plans to deliver more than 2,000 electric buses to Thai Smile Bus Company this year, bringing the total number of participating buses in the BMTA to 4,000. The return is above 8% per unit, plus 100 tons of carbon credit every year from 2021 to 2030 (10 years).
For Malaysia, EA is expected to be ready to provide 400-500 electric buses this year, with deliveries beginning in the third quarter of 2023.
Independent Energy and Petrochemical Analyst Mr Suwat Sinsadok said that EA will be able to dominate the electric bus industry in the future. The company’s target for this year is to supply around 2,000 electric buses, bringing the total number of EA buses to over 3,000 after accounting for 1,200 deliveries in the previous year. The profit for each car is roughly BHT 600-700 thousand per year, resulting in BHT 2.1 billion of income per year.
According to Yuanta Securities (Thailand), the draft of the “Future Bus Act” is beneficial to EA Group, that will result in a constant growth in demand for electric buses. It is predicted that at least 3,000 EV Buses will be ordered during the next seven years.
Furthermore, EA wants to deliver 20,000 EV Buses in 2023, which would likely result in a record high of normalized profit in 2023 at BHT 6.8 billion , a 26% increase over the previous year. The brokerage company retains a BUY rating with a fair price of BHT 105 per share by the end of 2023.
