(Yicai Global) May 17 -- BYD has confirmed that the Chinese new energy vehicle and battery giant plans to continue its expansion in Vietnam.

During a visit to Vietnam, BYD's Chairman Wang Chuanfu met with Vietnamese deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha and pledged the carmaker will introduce its best NEV manufacturing and assembly technology into Vietnam to serve the local market and its exports to Southeast Asian countries, a person close to BYD told Yicai Global.

BYD's unit BYD Electronics built an electronics factory in the Phu Ho Industrial Park, Vietnam's Phu Tho province, with an annual production capacity of over 4.3 million tablet computers and 50 million optical lenses.

Vietnam will hopefully provide favorable conditions for BYD to complete the investment process so that it can quickly invest in electric vehicles in the country and start selling them throughout Southeast Asia, Wang said during his meeting with Tran, online media outlet investorcn.Com reported. The Shenzhen-based firm also plans to create a local supply chain.

BYD is competing with Japan's Toyota for the Southeast Asian market, according to industry insiders. Vietnam will likely become BYD's second EV production base in the region after Thailand.

Toyota is undoubtedly BYD's biggest competitor in the Southeast Asian and even global car market. Although there is a big gap between BYD and Toyota in terms of globalization, as China and the world accelerate the transition from fuel vehicles to electric, BYD is consolidating its position as Toyota's competitor as well.

Toyota and BYD are also partners. The pair co-developed pure electric vehicle bZ3 and will cooperate on another car, the bZ Sport Crossover Concept.

BYD has been recently strengthening its presence in overseas markets. Last month, it ranked first by EV sales in Thailand, New Zealand, and Singapore. But besides increasing exports, BYD is also accelerating its globalization process by building more factories abroad.

Editor: Futura Costaglione