Thailand's new vehicle market continued to soar in July, with sales rising by 25.7% to 81,946 units from 65,178 units in the same month of last year, according to data released by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
The vehicle market is being driven higher by strong domestic economic growth, with the latest data showing second quarter GDP growth at 4.6% year on year, just slightly down from 4.9% in the first quarter. While growth in government spending moderated during the quarter, private consumption, investment and exports continued to expand strongly.
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Also, in the last year, most owners of vehicles bought under the previous government's first time buyer incentive programme in 2012 and 2013 have been able to claim tax rebates equivalent to up to 10% of the purchase cost of their vehicles after the expiry of a five year lock in period. This has also helped fuel demand for new vehicles in the country.
Around 1.4m vehicles, many of which pickup trucks, were bought under this programme over a period of just over two years – lifting the market to an unsustainable 1.43m units in 2012.
Toyota's sales jumped by more than 59% to 26,177 units last month, followed by Isuzu with a 8.4% rise to 13,140 units; Honda 10,488 (-0.1%); Mitsubishi 6,008 (+16.3%); Mazda 6,362 (+62.4%); Nissan 5,646 (+27.3%); and Ford 4,974 (+17.5%).
Overall sales in the first seven months of the year increased by 20.2% to 571,064 units compared with 475,154 units in the same period of last year.
