Thailand Vehicles Market in 2015 has lost 10% but ended showing signs of recovery. Mazda was the top brand while the Chinese MG is rapidly growing. The new vehicles of the year is the Honda HR-V.
Economic Outlook
Thailand’s economy grew steadily throughout the first three-quarters of 2015 mainly supported by robust government spending and healthy growth in private consumption, which more than offset faltering external demand.
More recent indicators point to a slight deceleration of the economy in the final quarter of 2015. Indeed, manufacturing barely grew in November and consumer confidence remained in pessimistic territory in December.
Earlier this month, the Thai military junta approved reforms under which hundreds of thousands metric tons of rubber will be purchased by the government at a price much higher than what is quoted on international markets.
With the purchased rubber, the government intends to cover demand on the domestic market and also to sell it overseas later on when prices recover. However, in the short-term, the move will push prices up amid a supply shortage.
Market Outlook
The long Thai new vehicles market crisis started in July 2013 when the sales figures were reported down 25% and continued for 28th months until November 2015, when year on year figures had been finally reported in black with a little but significant +4.9%. In December the data was confirmed with a robust performance, up 13.5%, ending the year with hopes for a positive 2016.
However, as far as the entire 2015, according to data released by the T.A.I.A, the Thai Automotive Industry Association, the total new vehicles sold had been 800.658, down 9.2% from the 2014, the lowest level since 2012.
Toyota fell down 18.8% with 265.171 sales (from the 326.472 in the 2014) with still a huge market share of 33%.
Second was Isuzu selling 144.295 units (-10.0%) followed by Honda with 112.178 sales (+5.3%), Mitsubishi with 59.820 (-4.9%), Nissan with 51.193 (-13.6%), Mazda with 39.471 (+15.0%) and Ford with 36.465 (-4.3%).
The Chinese MG recently landed in the market boomed with 3.779 sales.
As far as the best-selling models, the leader was again the Toyota Hilux with 128.628 sales (-11.1%) ahead of the Isuzu D.Max with 118.722 sales (-7.6%) followed by the Toyota Yaris with 36.211 sales (-31.4%).
The new Honda HR-V landed in seventh place with 26.417 units.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models
