Luxury, sports-car market zooming along

Phasupong is member of the Leenutaphong family, which is a major player in the country’s automotive industry. Apart from assembling vehicles, the Leenutaphong family is also a distributor of several European luxury brands in Thailand.

The Leenutaphong family recently restructured their business, with assets being divided between members.

But Phasupong seems to be a little different from the others: he gave up his car-distributorship business and became a Volkswagen dealer only, aiming to sell about 180 vehicles worth Bt700 million to Bt800 million this year. He later started an aftermarket business for Volkswagen and Audi cars under the ABT brand, and opened Autozkin, which sells and equips cars with protective transparent film.

Phasupong said he had recently joined hands with Autovox Singapore to introduce Akrapovic exhaust systems and HRE wheels for high-end sports cars.

“More than 80 per cent of Autozkin customers are owners of luxury cars and super cars, and our intention is to expand our business with world-class performance-enhancing accessories for our premium customers under the ‘Autoskin Performance Studio’ concept,” he said.The Slovenian-made exhaust and alloy wheels from the US are targeted at luxury and sports car owners, particularly Porsche, which has sold more than 2,000 vehicles in Thailand.“Arkapovic has a 23-year history and has been deeply involved in motorsports. It is presently one of the supporters of the Audi Sport team, which is the Le Mans 24-hour race champion, and BMW Motorsport, the German Touring Car champion,” he added.

The exhaust systems, which are lighter in weight and offer increased engine output, is priced from Bt70,000 to as much as Bt500,000, while mufflers are priced from Bt25,000 to Bt50,000.There’s even a wireless kit for adjusting the loudness of the exhaust, coming with a remote control unit. Prices range from Bt15,000 to Bt45,000.