Auto sales in Thailand shrunk by 3 per cent to 1,007,552 units in 2019, and the trend is expected to continue, with 2020 sales projected at just 940,000 units.
Michinobu Sugata, president of Toyota Motor Thailand Co Ltd, recently announced details of Thailand’s 2019 car sales figures and the market projection for 2020.
“In 2019, Thailand’s automotive market reached 1,007,552 units to be exact, which represents a 3% decrease compared to the previous year. This is the fourth time in the history of the Thai automotive market to hit over 1 million-unit level even though the market showed the sharp decline in the latter half of last year, especially from September,” he said.
“This year is going to be another challenging year for Thailand’s overall automotive industry. We are facing with the headwinds, including the decreasing level of consumer confidence and private consumption, tightening car-loan scheme, and continued uncertainty of the global economic trends. Taking these unfavorable factors into consideration, we expect that the total market will be 940,000 units, representing a 7% decrease from last year, Sugata said.
“In 2019, we were able to overcome the market negative growth and achieve a 6% increase in the domestic sales, accounting for 332,380 units. With this sales figure, we hit 33.0% market share, a 2.8 points improvement over 2018. The growth is a result of both the positive feedback from our customers and the launch of our all-new model passenger car and commercial vehicles last year,” he added.
“For our 2020 target, in the midst of the projected market decline, Toyota will try to maintain a 33.0% market share with 310,000 units, a 7% decrease from last year. Towards our goal, we will be strengthening our product line-up with the upcoming models and product improvements,” Sugata said.
In terms of export in 2019, Toyota’s CBU export volume ended up with 264,775 units, a 10% decline year on year. As for our production, last year, the total volume for domestic and export market combined was 570,850 units, a 3% decline from the previous year. This is a result of the difficult economic situation in Oceania, Central and South America regions.
“For Toyota’s CBU export target this year, we will challenge our CBU export target at 263,000 units, a slight decrease of 1% from last year. As for our production performance will be 556,000 units, a 3% decline from last year, in alignment with the local and global demand,” Sugata said.
Domestic Car Sales January – December 2019
1.) Total Car Sales: 1,007,552 units, decrease by 3.3%
1. Toyota 332,380 units 5.5% increase 33.0% market share
2. Isuzu 168,215 units 5.4% decrease 16.7% market share
3. Honda 125,833 units 1.9% decrease 12.5% market share
2.) Passenger Car Sales: 398,386 units, decrease by 0.3%
1. Toyota 117,708 units 4.7% increase 29.5% market share
2. Honda 96,154 units 0.4% increase 24.1% market share
3. Mazda 46,729 units 8.8% decrease 11.7% market share
3.) Commercial Vehicle Sales: 609,166 units, decrease by 5.1%
1. Toyota 214,672 units 5.9% increase 35.2% market share
2. Isuzu 168,215 units 5.4% decrease 27.6% market share
3. Ford 49,842 units 24.3% decrease 8.2% market share
4.) One-ton Pickup Sales (Pure Pick up and PPV) 492,129 units, decrease by 3.8%
1. Toyota 191,669 units 8.3% increase 38.9% market share
2. Isuzu 153,170 units 5.5% decrease 31.1% market share
3. Ford 49,841 units 23.5% decrease 10.1% market share
PPV sales in 1-ton pickup market: 60,452 units
Toyota 26,217 units – Mitsubishi 13,558 units – Isuzu 9,477 units – Ford 6,355 units – Chevrolet 3,091 units – Nissan 1,754 units
5.) Pure Pickup Sales: 431,677 units, decrease by 3.4%
1. Toyota 165,452 units 9.6% increase 38.3% market share
2. Isuzu 143,693 units 3.9% decrease 33.3% market share
3. Ford 43,486 units 21.7% decrease 10.1% market share
