Update: Thailand Tops 1 Million Sales Mark for First Time

Thailand’s new-vehicle sales soared 49.1% in the year’s first three quarters to surpass 1 million units for the first time, with no sign record demand is easing.

Toyota Thailand, which collates national sales data for the industry, says the 9-month total of 1,000,577 units was driven by a 52.7% increase in September to 132,874 vehicles.

New-car sales jumped 67.8% year-on-year to 68,282 units for the month, while commercial-vehicle deliveries rose 39.4% to 64,592. Within the CV segment, 1-ton pickup sales climbed 40.4% to 56,282.

The fourth quarter is expected to be a busy one as well, as first-time Thai car buyers rush to beat the Dec. 31 deadline and grab the TB100,000 ($3,261) tax rebate available on select locally built vehicles.

Toyota Thailand Executive Vice President Wutthikorn Suriyachantananon says growth also will be boosted by continued high demand from the general public and a production increase designed to reduce the industry’s order backlog.

Toyota still commanded the largest share of the overall vehicle market in the first three quarters, with cumulative sales growing 49.0% to 380,751 units, good for a 38.1% market penetration.

Isuzu followed with a 15% share on the back of 150,003 vehicles sold, a 29.2% increase, and Honda ranked third with a 10.6% market penetration and 106,444-unit deliveries, a 45.2% increase.

Toyota’s September sales rose 18.8% to 46,568 vehicles. Honda boosted deliveries 56.5% to 19,465 units, outpacing Isuzu, up 55.6% to 17,046.

Mazda’s September sales grew 81.7% to 7,237 units, taking its 9-month total up 64.3% to 52,170.

Mazda still has a large number of back orders, but Marketing Director Sureetip La-Ongthong Chomthongdee says the auto maker will be able to deliver these vehicles within four months.

“Customers who place orders now will receive their vehicles in January, so we urge customers to place orders sooner than usual, and prepare the documents for submission before the year-end period when traffic will become very tight,” Sureetip says in a statement.

“If customers are unable to submit the documents in time, the excise-tax rebate program will not be applied.”

Chevrolet Thailand built on its record-breaking sales of the previous three months with 7,177 deliveries in September, up 266.2%. This raised its 9-month sales 130.3% to 52,943, in the process more than doubling its market share to 5.3% from 2.3% a year ago.

The Colorado pickup was Chevrolet’s top performer in September, with 2,984 units, outpacing the recently launched Thai-built Sonic subcompact, with sales of 1,372.

Ford Thailand sales soared 109.1% to September record 4,877 units as deliveries of the all-new Ford Focus surged 351% to 888 units and customer bookings neared 4,000 units since its August launch. Fiesta sales jumped 67% to 2,697 and all-new Ranger sales rose 58% to 1,185.

The result put Ford’s year-to-date sales up 866.8% to 38,099 units.