Thailand's new vehicle market continued to soar in August with sales rising 27.7% to 86,814 units from 67,962 units in the same month of last year, according to data compiled by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
Strong domestic economic growth continues to drive the vehicle market forward with the latest available 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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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 new vehicle sales over the last year.
Toyota's sales jumped by more than 69% to 27,086 units in August, followed by Isuzu with a 2.7% rise to 13,135 units; Honda 11,307 (+5.6%); Mitsubishi 7,020 (+27.6.3%); Ford 5,927 (+22.9%); Mazda 5,920 (+35.1%); and Nissan 5,732 (+19.0%).
Overall sales in the first eight months of the year increased by just over 21% to 657,878 units compared with 543,116 units in the same period of last year.
