Thailand’s new vehicle market declined by just over 2% to 48,242 units in February 2026 from 49,313 units a year earlier, according to the latest data released by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), due mainly to a sharp fall in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales following the expiry of the government's EV3.0 incentive programme at the end of last year.
This was the first year-on-year decline for the Thai vehicle market in almost a year and followed a strong surge in January, when automakers continued to deliver BEVs purchased before the expiry of the EV3.0 programme, which has now been replaced by the EV3.5 programme, which offers lower incentives.
Overall vehicle sales rose by over 25% to 122,178 units in the first two months of 2026 from 97,405 units a year earlier, as the market continued to recover from two years of sharp declines as the country’s highly indebted consumers and small businesses struggled to access financing after banks tightened lending rules. Economic growth in the country accelerated to 2.5% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 1.2% in the third quarter, on stronger domestic consumption and investment growth. The central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate from 2.5% to 1.0% in the last eighteen months to help drive up domestic growth.
BEV sales fell by 19% to 6,168 units in February, but increased by 160% to 38,027 units year-to-date following the strong surge in January. Sales of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) increased by 19% to 25,360 units in the two-month period, while sales of pickup trucks declined by almost 4% to 24,505 units, and sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger cars fell by 16% to 19,815 units.
Vehicle production in the country rose by 7% to 236,338 vehicles year-to-date, while exports fell by almost 3% to 139,600 units, with overseas demand affected by the strong baht and rising global competition from Chinese automakers.
Earlier this year, the Federation said it expected vehicle production in the country to reach 1.5 million units this year, including 550,000 for sale domestically and 950,000 for export. GlobalData expects domestic light vehicle sales to decline slightly to 613,000 units in 2026, after growing by 9% to 617,000 units last year, with the market forecast to rebound by almost 12% to 684,000 units in 2027.
