Automakers hope to see gradual recovery in 2017

With auto sales in Thailand declining by 3.9 per cent to 768,788 units
in 2016, automakers are hoping for
gradual recovery this year, thanks to
several positive factors.
They include the end of the fiveyear ownership period of the First Car
Buyer scheme – which means people
can sell their cars bought under this
scheme and buy new ones – increased
government spending and the launch
of new models by various manufacturers, said 0, president of Toyota
Motor Thailand.
“This makes us foresee that 2017
auto sales in Thailand will be at the
level of 800,000 units, equivalent to
a 4.1 per cent rise,” he told journalists
at Toyota’s annual press conference
yesterday.
According to Toyota, the largest
auto company in the Kingdom, the
passenger car market is expected to
surge by almost 13 per cent this year
while a decline will be seen in the
commercial vehicle sector, which
includes 1-tonne pickup trucks and its
derivatives.
According to a sales breakdown by
Toyota, it was the top-ranked brand
in the car market last year with sales
of 87,271 units, followed by Honda
with 78,132 units, while Mazda came
a distant third with 27,375 units.
However, Honda Automobile
(Thailand) earlier this month
announced that it was the top passenger car brand with sales of 107,372
units. The difference between
Toyota’s and Honda’s figures lie in the
three Honda models – namely the
BR-V, HR-V and CR-V. While Toyota
categorises them as commercial vehicles due to their SUV homologation,
Honda argues that the three models
are cars and should be included in its
passenger car tally.
In the luxury segment, MercedesBenz maintained its leadership for
another year with sales of 11,657 units,
followed by BMW with 7,923 units.
Meanwhile, in the pickup truck
market, a strong sales boost in
December enabled Toyota to overtake arch rival Isuzu and emerge once
again as the top pickup brand with an
aggregate of 120,444 units versus
Isuzu’s 120,009 units. American
automaker Ford was third with
30,828 units sold.
Tanada said purchasing power is
not expected to grow much this year
and the economic scenario is similar
to last year. “We guess that the commercial vehicle market won’t grow
this year while the passenger car market will benefit from the engine of the
First Car Buyer ownership period,” he
said.
According to Tanada, Toyota also
exported 318,658 CBU vehicles in
2016 (down by 15 per cent) and Bt62
billion worth of OEM parts.
Due to weaker demand from the
Middle East, Toyota will be looking
for new markets such as those in AsiaOceania and Latin America, he said.