Cambodia's $5,000 Car: 100% Chinese Goods?

Cambodia is known as a poor, developing country with backward science and technology, so this information also makes many people skeptical.

Cambodia's Heng Development Company has just launched an electric car named after the ancient Angkor temple - Angkor EV 2013. The product can run 60km/hour.

According to green.autoblog, Angkor EV will have 2 seats with vertically opening doors and an appearance that may resemble the Nissan Quest minivan.

In March 2011, Heng Development Company and engineer Nhean Phaloe and Chou Leang Alliance Group signed an agreement to build an Angkor factory in Takhmao district, Kandal province, Cambodia worth 20 million USD, to serve the production plan of 500 - 1,000 cars, which will be divided 80/20 respectively for the parties. Accordingly, Mr. Nhean Phaloek will import machinery and some components from China, as well as other technology from Germany to produce Angkor cars.

Angkor EV

Immediately, information about this “hybrid” attracted the attention of many readers. “I know that this car has a lot of Chinese parts in it, but I still admire Cambodia for teaching Vietnam how to do macroeconomics. There is a very simple thing: if you want to develop a product without a large enough market, who would dare to invest money to build a factory? If you want to lose money and go bankrupt, then do it, but if you want to work and wait for an opportunity, the situation will only be like this. That's all.

The market is like a cake. If everyone wants a share, they must be active and aggressive in competing for it. The same goes for the auto industry. It must be like that to develop. Currently, the domestic auto industry is too stagnant and too protected. So failure is not surprising. Failure is not as scary as having no one to take responsibility for it,” praised reader David Thai.

For a long time, Cambodia has been known as a poor, developing country with backward science and technology, so this information has made many people skeptical.

Reader hoangnguyetanh…@yahoo.com expressed his opinion when hearing the news: “Regarding this Angkor car, I don't know what you guys think, but I have some doubts. Because in Southeast Asia, there are many countries with much higher mechanical skills than Cambodia, such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, but why haven't they announced that they can make their own electric cars? Cambodia's technology is still very weak, there are no precision mechanical factories, not even assembly factories, no big company dares to set up an assembly factory there (has anyone heard of phones, laptops, televisions, refrigerators made in Cambodia?). Therefore, this car could be a concept model designed by a Cambodian, but ordered to be manufactured in... China. Now, everyone knows how Cambodia's relationship with China is...

Inventor Nhean Phaloek and his first Angkor vehicle

Nickname did not hesitate to retort: ​​“What’s so interesting about it that it’s being praised so much? It’s just an assembled product with details picked up from abroad. Haven’t we been doing that for years in Vietnam?”

Although there are still many disagreements and doubts about this $5,000 electric car, this "illegible child" with a "cheap" price is also supported and praised by many people. This is considered a great achievement of the young manufacturing industry of Cambodia, a country that is heavily dependent on imported goods from abroad, especially from China and Thailand.

According to vietnamnet