Car sale plunges 46% in January
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Only 68,508 vehicles were sold in January and Toyota Motor Thailand attributed the 45.5 per cent annualised drop to the huge sale volume last year bouyed by the first-car buyer scheme.
Of total, a number of 26,405 passenger cars were sold, down by 55.9 per cent from the same period last year. The one-tonne pickups also showed a 36.9 per cent drop to 35,080 units.
Vudhigorn Suriyachantananont, senior vice president of TMT, said that the auto industry is now in the normal growth mode, as the first-car buyer scheme ended at the end of 2012.
He expected an improvement in February. February is a good selling month and new models, launched earlier this year, will be delivered.
However, he noted that the political turbulence could send a negative psychological impact on consumption and this could affect the automotive market.
