.png)
THE Thailand automotive market is growing fast. Despite their fascination for pickup trucks, their passenger car segment is starting to see a sizable rise in sales. It must be noted that the Thai government imposes a very low tax on pickup trucks over passenger cars, therefore it is called ‘the pickup truck capital of Asia’.
Selling fastest
The fastest-selling passenger car right now in Thailand is the all-new Nissan Almera which was launched in November 2019, almost a year before arriving in Malaysia. Sitting in a strong third position, this new family sedan has seen a sales jump of 7.6% and a healthy 16,975 units bought by Thai car buyers.
Meanwhile, in Malaysia, sales of this Nissan Almera are not that encouraging and instead, Proton and Perodua are taking a lion’s share of the segment sales and the rest of the sales have been shared between Honda, Toyota, Mazda, and Nissan. This is a segment where car prices are around RM110k and below.
Against its immediate rival, the Honda City, the Almera is a distance away in the Malaysian passenger car sales race as Honda has more than 9,000-plus booking and counting for this all-new City sedan since its launch. You can already see the new Honda City on our roads every single day, whereas the Almera is hardly to be seen.
Other popular models
Back in Thailand, the Toyota Yaris managed to enter the sales podium with 4.3% share and 29.675 units sold (-24.8%), less than 2,000 units ahead of the Honda City which is up by three spots over the previous year with 28,300 units (-8.3%) and the Mazda 2 with 22,941 units (-45.8%).
In ninth place we have the Honda Jazz (soon to be replaced by a newer model ) which is up by two spots with 17,009 units sold (-25.3%) followed by the new entry in the leaderboard and the only sales gainer, the Nissan Almera (+7.6%) with 16,975 units sold, giving it a good three positions up from last year.
There are two additional gainers in the top 10 sales list. The Chinese-owned and manufactured MG Cars (+6.8%) remains in eighth place and hits a record 4.9% share in December and then there is Suzuki (+6.8%) which manages to get to ninth place.
The biggest surprise was in the premium segment where BMW (-1.1%) entered the top 10 bestselling car brands in Thailand in solid fashion with a minimal year-on-year decrease. Mercedes-Benz for the very first time in 18 years has taken a close second place behind BMW in the Thai premium segment.
Further down the sales ladder was Peugeot (+265.5%) who posted a spectacular sales gain despite holding only a 0.1% market share. Chinese auto brand JAC is up (+50%) together with Foton (+11%) and Lexus (+10.2%). Meanwhile, the only other brands losing market share were Ssangyong (-10.1%), Volvo (-13.1%), and Hino (-16.6%).
Export issues
Thailand Automotive Institute‘s (TAI) President Pisit Rangsaritwutikul said automobile exports from Thailand will continue to face challenges from safeguard measures implemented by some countries, such as the Philippines, which effectively limit the number of auto imports into their countries.
This import limitation by the Philippines is expected to affect the amount of Thailand’s auto exports, as Thailand is the second-largest and the largest sedan and pickup trucks to the Philippines, respectively. This measure is expected to stay until August 8, with a possibility for further extension.
According to TAI’s Next Generation Automotive Research Center, Thailand’s automotive sector produced a 19-month high of 172,455 cars in November last year alone, with the total output from January to November 2020 at 1,284,202.
This increase in output is a result of the recovery of domestic and export markets, with the annual output for this year expected to be around 1.4 million.
The TAI notes that the sector may face some uncertainties until this month from the resurgence of Covid-19 cases around the world. – The Vibes, March 2, 2021
This article is powered by www.dsf.my. For more automotive updates, follow DSF.my on Facebook and Instagram
