New vehicle sales in Thailand rose by 233% to 142,839 units in October, compared with 42,834 units in the same month last year – when the market was severely affected by severe floods across large parts of the country.

Cumulative ten-month sales rose by 59.9% to a new record high of 1,141,556 units, putting the market on course to reach 1.4m units this year.

Driving demand higher is pent up demand left over from last year and first-time buyer incentives, which expire at the end of the year. 

Vehicle production rose by 48% to 1,975,783 units in the ten-month period, while exports rose by 21%, to 840,149 units – for a total value of THB 402.79 billion.