National oil and gas conglomerate PTT Group says it intends to maintain the momentum of its new business development, including electric vehicles (EVs), over the next five years.
It wants to have new businesses generate 30% of net profit by 2030, whereas last year the new businesses made up less than 1% of total net profit.
PTT expects to produce the first EV in 2023.
EV production is among the new businesses under PTT's "Future Energy and Beyond" scheme. Others include life science, energy storage system, artificial intelligence and robotic development, renewable energy and pharmacy.
PTT president and chief executive Auttapol Rerkpiboon said on Tuesday that over the next decade PTT plans to focus on future energy, which will require 32% of total capital spending. The remaining 68% will go to gas exploration and production.
PTT will also make a final investment decision on the establishment of an EV production facility in the Eastern Economic Corridor area at a cost of US$ 1-2 billion.
The company earlier signed a memorandum of understanding with Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant, to produce EVs and their components for the Thai market.
PTT's power generation arm Global Power Synergy Plc (GPSC) also plans to scale up battery production capacity to a gigawatt-hour level after opening a 1.1-billion-baht pilot plant in Rayong.
PTT wants to increase power generation capacity from a target of 16 gigawatts to 20GW by 2030.
The expansion, to be done through GPSC Plc and its wholly owned Global Renewable Power Co, is in line with the government's plan to adopt a carbon neutrality campaign in response to global warming.
PTT on Tuesday reported a 23% growth in revenue in the first half of this year to 1.011 trillion baht, up from 824.9 billion baht.
Net profit increased fivefold to 57.16 billion baht, up from 10.5 billion baht in the same period last year, said Mr Auttapol.
More revenue and profit resulted from rising global oil prices and more sales of gas and petrochemical products, he said.
Capital expenditure for PTT is set at 865 billion baht, an increase from 851 billion baht.