On 16 October 2026, Starry Law Firm hosted in Qianhai, Shenzhen, a special seminar titled “Chinese Enterprises Going Global to Southeast Asia: Perspectives on the New Energy Vehicle Industry Chain.” The event focused on key issues facing the overseas expansion of the NEV industry chain, including supply-chain restructuring, charging-infrastructure investment, cross-border data compliance and industrial opportunities in Southeast Asia.

Attorney Guo Ruoying, Founding Partner of Starry Law Firm Thailand; Attorney Deng Mingyue, Founding Partner of Starry Law Firm Indonesia; Attorney Zhao Yifan, Partner of AllBright Law Offices (Shenzhen); and Ms. Liu Jiaqi, Managing Partner of Starry Advisory, were invited to share their perspectives. Their presentations provided participating enterprises with insights from legal, industrial and investment perspectives.

I. A Charging Station Project Is More Than Installing Chargers: A Comprehensive Compliance Exercise

Attorney Guo Ruoying spoke on “Investing in Southeast Asia: Market Opportunities and Compliance Entry for New Energy Vehicle Charging Stations.” She noted that an NEV charging-station project is not simply the sale of equipment or a site-lease arrangement. It is a comprehensive undertaking involving foreign-investment entry, electricity operations, project construction, grid connection, land and building formalities, and ongoing operations. As NEV ownership and demand for public charging rise, markets such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia continue to refine their electric-mobility infrastructure policies.

Drawing on practical experience in Thailand, Attorney Guo explained that different business models lead to different foreign-investment entry requirements, electricity-operation qualifications, allocations of responsibility and contractual arrangements. Only by systematically assessing the business model, compliance pathway and transaction structure at the outset can an enterprise effectively identify project risks, clarify the responsibilities of each party and lay the groundwork for implementation.

II. Cross-Border Data Governance: NEV Expansion Requires More Than a Focus on Vehicles and Factories

Attorney Deng Mingyue presented on “Cross-Border Data Compliance for New Energy Vehicle Expansion.” She observed that connected vehicles continuously generate and process a wide range of data, including users’ personal information, vehicle-operation data, location trajectories, charging and discharging information, driver-assistance data, exterior images, and data relating to battery management, software upgrades and safety diagnostics. For enterprises carrying out R&D, manufacturing, sales, after-sales services and cloud operations across China, Thailand and Indonesia, data may flow continuously among headquarters, overseas subsidiaries, suppliers, cloud-service providers and platform operators. Enterprises therefore need to answer three threshold questions: where the data is generated, who processes it and where it ultimately flows.

Attorney Deng stressed that the central question is not simply where data is stored. Overseas sales, remote diagnostics, OTA upgrades, customer-service systems, charging networks and supplier technical support can all create cross-border access or transmission needs. Businesses should evaluate the purpose of processing, data categories, transfer frequency, recipient permissions, retention periods and technical measures, rather than treating intra-group transfers as automatically compliant.

III. Turning Industrial Opportunities into Tangible Returns

Ms. Liu Jiaqi shared observations on regional industrial division of labour and the economics of overseas manufacturing in her presentation, “Southeast Asia’s NEV Industry Chain: Market Opportunities, Entry Pathways and Investment Assessment.” She noted that Chinese NEV expansion into Southeast Asia is generating new procurement relationships, manufacturing partnerships and investment opportunities. However, market growth, vehicle output and component orders do not necessarily move in step. Enterprises must return to real orders, costs, cash flow and capital investment when assessing a project’s value.

She further explained that the region’s NEV industry is developing rapidly while undergoing structural adjustment. Enterprises should monitor policy, market and supply-chain changes, while choosing an entry pathway that matches their capabilities. Whether the choice is product exports, channel partnerships, local production or supply-chain deployment, it should rest on sound commercial logic and a long-term investment perspective.

IV. Advancing NEV Expansion into Southeast Asia through a Whole-Chain Perspective

The event concluded with exchanges among the participants. From supply-chain commercial substance and charging-station compliance to cross-border data governance and investment judgement, the speakers highlighted the issues that NEV industry-chain enterprises need to address systematically when expanding into Southeast Asia.

NEV expansion is no longer limited to vehicle sales or overseas factory construction. It is a coordinated undertaking involving supply chains, infrastructure, data governance and local operations. Going forward, Starry will continue to draw on its local legal and industrial-service capabilities in Thailand, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets to support Chinese NEV industry-chain enterprises in investment entry, project implementation, operational compliance, cross-border data matters and day-to-day operations, helping them establish a steady presence in the region.