Thailand's new vehicle market continued to grow strongly in October, with sales rising by 26.8% to 86,931 units from 68,551 units in the same month of last year, according to data compiled by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
The strong market growth continued despite a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the third quarter, to 3.3% from 4.6% in the second quarter, due mainly to declining export activity.
A stable baht has allowed the Thai central bank to leave its overnight lending rate unchanged at a historic low of 1.5% which is helping to fuel domestic consumption.
Sales of passenger cars rose by 14.1% to 32,805 units in October while SUV sales jumped by 70% to 6,079 units, pickup-based vehicles 43,827 units (+34.6%) and other commercial vehicles 4,220 units (+15.2%).
Toyota's sales jumped by close to 37% to 28,990 units last month, followed by Isuzu with a sales rise of 11.7% to 13,496 units, Honda 10,987 (+13.7%), Mitsubishi 6,718 (+18.3%), Nissan 6,333 (+37.4%), Mazda 5,647 (+63.2%) and Ford 5,126 (+15.9%).
Overall sales in the first 10 months of the year increased by 20.9% to 833,515 units compared with 689,266 units in the same period of last year.
Vehicle exports increased by 2.75% to 93,338 units in October and by 1.2% to 952,125 units YTD while overall production rose by 20.6% to 197,203 units last month and by 9.75% to 1.8m units YTD.
