Thailand's new vehicle market jumped by over 20% to 104,302 units in December compared with 86,858 units a year earlier, according to data released by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
The local vehicle market is recovering from four straight years of decline which culminated in a 4% drop to 768,788 units in 2016 from a peak of 1.43m in 2012.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Economic growth has strengthened significantly this year, reflecting a pick-up in domestic consumption, investment and exports.
Third-quarter GDP growth came in at 4.3% year on year, up from 3.7% in the second quarter and 3.3% in the first quarter.
Toyota's sales rebounded by 12% to 31,324 units in December after the company posted weaker sales in previous months while Isuzu's sales declined slightly to 15,446 units, Honda sold 14,463 units (+39,8%); Mitsubishi 8,913 (+34.6%); Nissan 7,009 (+37.1%); and Ford 6,728 (+34.0%).
Sales of passenger cars jumped by over 40% to 41,449 units last month while SUV sales were up by close to 36% to 7,301, pickup trucks 50,459 (+8.4%) and other commercial vehicles 5,093 (-6.9%).
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataTotal vehicle sales in 2017 increased 13.4% to 871,650 units.
Earlier in the month Mazda said it expected the Thai market to expand by 5.5% to 920,000 units in 2018 with its own sales amounting to 60,000.
Both Honda and the FTI are expecting more moderate growth – forecasting 900,000 units.
