Harman breaks ground on new manufacturing facility in Thailand

The new facility, which will be approximately 47,000  square metres in size, will be located just 125 kilometres outside of Bangkok in Laem Chabang, strategically sited within Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) and close to manufacturing facilities for numerous global automotive and technology brands.

While the facility will support several of Harman's automotive business units, manufacturing at the new Thailand location will focus primarily on developing products for the company’s automotive division. The company states in a press release that the new manufacturing facility in Thailand will enable Harman to further scale solutions such as Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence – and deliver on its promise of building in-cabin consumer experiences at an automotive grade.

“Expanding our manufacturing footprint in a location like Thailand offers enormous benefits including a rich talent pool and close proximity to OEM partners. In addition to offering years of manufacturing experience supporting both the automotive and technology sectors, Thailand is rapidly transforming into a major production hub for both electric vehicles and the next generation of automotive technology. The synergies between Thailand’s growing investments in high-tech manufacturing and the rapid pace needed to support today’s automotive customers make our decision to commit to the region an easy one,” says Christian Sobottka, President of Harman Automotive in the press release.

Today Harman has a global operations presence with automotive manufacturing facilities in Brazil, China, Hungary, India, and Mexico. Thailand was selected as the site location for the company's newest manufacturing expansion because of the country’s high vehicle production volume, existing OEM presence, and talent-rich environment for technology manufacturing. 

Construction on the facility is expected to be completed in Q4 of 2025, and until then Harman will begin hiring locally for select roles this autumn and plans to build its local workforce to approximately 1,200 employees.