GAC has begun assembling vehicles in Cambodia, the state-owned Guangzhou carmaker said on Sunday, three days after Prime Minister Hun Manet inaugurated the plant and used the ceremony to question whether his country can absorb the assembly capacity it has already licensed.
The knock-down plant in Kampong Chhnang province, in Kampong Tralach district, was inaugurated on Thursday, September 17.
GAC’s announcement on its official social media accounts on Sunday said production had started and the first locally assembled Trumpchi had rolled off the line.
The plant belongs to TH Automotive Manufacturing, a unit of Cambodia’s TH Group, which GAC describes as its strategic partner in the country.
TH Group invests in and runs the facility. GAC supplies the kits, technical standards and what it calls “full-chain technical support,” a structure Hun Manet described as “100 per cent Cambodian-owned.”
It is the second time this year GAC has started production at a plant it does not own.
In March it began assembling the Aion UT hatchback at Magna’s Graz plant in Austria alongside the Aion V, under a contract-manufacturing agreement signed in late 2025.
Vehicles built in Graz are not subject to the countervailing duties the European Commission imposed on Chinese-built electric cars in October 2024.
In Cambodia the logic is different, a customs and logistics saving in a market where the brand already leads Chinese rivals, but the model is the same: local partner, GAC kits, no GAC-owned factory.
What the Plant Will Build
Hun Manet, per the Phnom Penh Post, said the TH Automotive plant has an annual assembly capacity of about 20,000 vehicles under the completely knocked-down system, with 90% of output for the domestic market and 10% for export.
The first models are the Emzoom (影速) compact SUV, the Emkoo (影酷), the GS8 and the GN8 people carrier, in both combustion and new-energy versions, according to Chinese reports of the announcement. GAC’s own English release does not name models.
The project was launched in 2024 and had originally targeted completion in late 2025 and a start of production in January 2026. It slipped by about eight months.
Why Cambodia
GAC has sold in Cambodia for about seven years through a sales partnership with TH.
It says Trumpchi has grown at a compound annual rate above 300% over the past three years, from a small base, and was the best-selling Chinese brand in the country in 2025. It plans to reach full dealer coverage of Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang this year.
Jiang Xiuyun, Deputy General Manager of GAC Group, gave three priorities for the plant in remarks to Chinese media: quality consistent with GAC’s global standard, a broader combustion and electric mix with better aftersales, and deeper local supply-chain work with TH.
The market is small. Cambodia had about one million registered light vehicles at the end of August, along with 317,368 heavy vehicles and 7.25 million motorcycles and tricycles, per the Ministry of Public Works and Transport figures Xinhua cited.
The PM’s Warning
Hun Manet’s speech at the inauguration, broadcast live on state television, was as much a caution as a celebration.
Cambodia now has 10 operating vehicle assembly plants with combined capacity of about 35,000 units a year, he said, with two more close to opening and three under construction. Total investment in the sector is about $248 million, 28% domestic and 72% foreign, supporting 2,774 jobs.
The 10 operating plants, per the Khmer Times, include BYD, Camko Motor for Hyundai, Toyota Tsusho, RMA Automotive and Daehan alongside TH Automotive.
“Should we accelerate or slow down to maintain the resilience of this sector?” he asked, directing the Council for the Development of Cambodia to assess market demand and existing capacity before approving further plants. Securing large numbers of investment licences “proves counterproductive if factories subsequently fail or close,” he said. “The priority must be ensuring our existing investments survive, grow and remain sustainable before we push for further expansion.”
The new plant’s planned output is large against that base.
On GAC’s figure it is equal to nearly 30% of the national capacity Hun Manet cited, and on his own figure more than half.
Whether the 35,000 already counts TH Automotive, which he inaugurated as the tenth plant in the same speech, is not clear from the reports.
He also said parts remain almost entirely imported and that Cambodia wants to become a regional base for assembled vehicles and components rather than only a market for kits. “We do not necessarily need to export entire vehicles,” he said, per the Khmer Times.
