Thailand’s new vehicle market rebounded by almost 54% to 73,936 units in January 2026 from weak year-earlier sales of 48,092 units, according to the latest data released by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).

January was the tenth consecutive month of growth for the country’s vehicle market, following 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 1.25% in the last eighteen months to help drive up domestic growth.

The sharp rebound in sales last month was mainly due to a surge in deliveries of electric vehicles (EVs) purchased before the expiry of the Thai government’s EV3.0 incentive programme at the end of 2025, which has now been replaced by the EV3.5 programme which offers lower incentives. Chinese automakers also stepped up their marketing and promotions towards the end of last year in order to meet their full-year production quotas.

Government data show sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) surged by 354% year-on-year to 31,860 units in January, while sales of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) rose by 19% to 12,650 units.  By contrast, sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) pickup trucks fell by 6% to 11,500 units.

Vehicle production in the country rose by 10.5% to 118,386 vehicles last month, while exports fell by 6.3% to 58,405 units, with overseas demand affected by the strong baht and rising global competition from Chinese automakers. The Federation has lifted its 2026 vehicle production target to 1.5 million units, including 550,000 domestic sales and 950,000 exports. GlobalData expects domestic light vehicle sales to rise by just 1.4% to 626,000 units in 2026, after growing by 9% to 617,000 units last year.