Record business at this year's Motor Expo
A record-high 75,000 orders are expected to have been placed at this year's Thailand International Motor Expo, which ended yesterday at Impact Muang Thong Thani.
Kwanchai Paphatphong, president of Inter Media Consultants, the organiser of the show, said 69,504 orders had been placed up until Sunday.
“This is 42,483 more than last year, or an increase of 157 per cent,” he said.
Before the show started, Kwanchai predicted that a record 50,000 orders would be placed, thanks to the high popularity of the government’s first-car-buyer scheme as well as the launch of many new models.
Meanwhile, the market for big motorcycles also enjoyed a strong boost from the show, with 1,577 orders placed up until Sunday.
The organiser said 1,700 orders were expected to have been placed for big bikes at this year’s event.
A total of 1.4 million automobiles are expected to be sold in Thailand this year, thanks to government stimulus programmes and strong demand carried over from flood-stricken 2011.
With one day to go, a total of 1,466,353 visitors had attended the Motor Expo, easily beating last year’s 1,314,240. “Attendance is already up by 11.6 per cent and we are expecting the target number of 1.6 million people,” he said.
With a record number of orders placed this year, auto-makers continue to work hard to win customers.
The increase in orders comes mainly from the lower end of the market, including eco-cars and 1.5-litre subcompacts and pickups that qualify for the first-car-buyer tax rebate.
For the first time, Honda is set to beat arch-rival Toyota with more orders at a major Thai auto show.
The company had received 16,148 orders up until Sunday, for a 23.2-per-cent share of overall orders taken, while Toyota followed with 14,961 orders (21.5 per cent).
Honda capitalised on the wide variety of 10 new products launched since April, including the new Brio Amaze that was introduced recently.
Toyota, meanwhile, does not have a totally new product, but decided to accept orders for the all-new Vios that will be officially launched in April.
Nissan is another brand that has benefited significantly from the eco-car and first-car programmes, and had already secured 6,869 orders (9.9 per cent) with one day of the show to go.
Isuzu, capitalising on the D-Max pickup, ranked fourth with 5,587 orders (8 per cent), followed by Mazda with 4,774 orders (6.9 per cent), Mitsubishi with 4,692 (6.8 per cent) and Ford with 4,299 (6.3 per cent).
Suzuki had 2,789 orders, followed by Chevrolet with 2,624 and Mercedes-Benz with 1,306.
RELATED