Updated November 2011.
After a dismal 2009, the car industry in Thailand rebounded in 2010 with a vengeance. Total production, local sales, and exports of cars, all reached new highs. Total exports of cars have now surpassed domestic sales. The heavily promoted Thai car industry may be well on the way to become one of the top 10 car producers in the world in the not so distant future. 2011 looked like becoming a good follow-up to the higher production in 2010. Figures below only cover the period Januari-September 2011. Obviously the major flooding (with submersion of many car and car parts factories) will make for a dismal 4th quarter of 2011.
General Motors (diesel engine plant) and Ford (new car plant), as well as Mercedes-Benz Thailand (engine plant) all announced substantial investments. The overall market is still well dominated by Japanese brand cars. All Japanese manufacturers seem to have decided to concentrate on small, eco-friendly car production, to drive production in the future.
At the end of November 2010 there were 28,287,374 vehicles registered for road use in Thailand. |
Total production of cars, car exports and domestic sales all at a new high. Exports surpass local sales in 2010.
Number for 2011 January-September.
Table with numbers by year.
Private cars (can seat no more than 7 persons) : 4,479,310. See list of brands below. Japanese smaller cars dominate the overall market. European cars, except in the up-market segment, are conspicuous by their absence. However, Mercedes-Benz has a long-standing reputation in the country, and the Thai market is a substantial one for the company. Ford and General Motors also sell a reasonable amount of cars.
Luxury brands (Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Porche, Ferrari, MG, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Lotus, Bentley, Lamborghini) are well presented.
Note that there are more cars in Bangkok than in the rest of the country.
Pick-ups (or similar) : 4,882,861 : Pick-up trucks are almost all either Toyota or Isuzu.
Motorcycles : 17,094,099 : Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki (in that order) completeley dominate the motorcycle market.
Public Buses : 87,255.
Trucks : 814,990. |
| Cars on the road in Thailand, end 2010, by brand name : |
| |
|
|
BANGKOK : |
PROVINCES : |
| 1. |
Toyota : |
1,673,312 |
890,207 |
783,105 |
| 2. |
Honda : |
966,897 |
545,567 |
421,330 |
| 3. |
Isuzu : |
349,926 |
122,486 |
227,440 |
| 4. |
Mitsubishi : |
324,808 |
148,201 |
176,607 |
| 5. |
Nissan : |
294,868 |
166,582 |
128,286 |
| 6. |
Mercedes-Benz |
149,624 |
119,256 |
30,368 |
| 7. |
Mazda : |
108,268 |
53,753 |
54,515 |
| 8. |
Chevrolet : |
92,054 |
48,940 |
43,114 |
| 9. |
Ford : |
89,212 |
39,831 |
49,381 |
| 10. |
BMW : |
82,507 |
59,228 |
23,279 |
| 11. |
Volvo : |
54,428 |
37,994 |
16,434 |
| 12. |
Hyundai |
33,853 |
11,524 |
22,329 |
| 13. |
Peugeot : |
32,026 |
15,147 |
16,879 |
| 14. |
Suzuki : |
27,474 |
12,032 |
15,442 |
| 15. |
Volkswagen : |
27,302 |
17,867 |
9,435 |
| 16. |
Daihatsu : |
21,120 |
3,210 |
17,910 |
| 17. |
Datsun : |
20,129 |
6,313 |
13,816 |
| 18. |
Opel : |
15,791 |
5,695 |
10,096 |
| 19. |
Jeep : |
10,274 |
5,985 |
4,289 |
| 20. |
Proton : |
9,857 |
5,271 |
4,586 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| 37. |
Jaguar : |
2,020 |
1,813 |
207 |
| 38. |
Alfa Romeo : |
1,789 |
1,466 |
323 |
| 39. |
Porche |
1,736 |
1,677 |
59 |
| 51. |
Ferrari : |
347 |
341 |
6 |
| 54. |
MG : |
285 |
215 |
70 |
| 56. |
Hummer : |
252 |
219 |
33 |
| 57. |
Rolls-Royce : |
242 |
227 |
15 |
| 61. |
Maserati : |
186 |
175 |
11 |
| 65. |
Lotus : |
171 |
157 |
14 |
| 68. |
Bentley : |
160 |
156 |
4 |
| 69. |
Lamborghini : |
124 |
119 |
5 |
| |
Other brands (not specifed) |
1,765 |
1,024 |
741 |
| Total : |
|
4,479,310 |
2,375,326 |
2,103,984 |
See complete list on separate page. |
Car manufacturing (and car parts manufacturing) is an important component of total Thai industry. The value of exports (cars and car parts) in 2010 (preliminary figures with last month of the year not included) was 538 billion baht (about 18 billion U.S. Dollars at exchange rate at the end of 2010). Thailand has no car brand of its own. Many foreign companies are producing or assembling cars and car parts in the country.
Car assemblers in Thailand (through subsidiaries and/or joint ventures) :
Mazda, Ford (Auto Alliance Thailand Co. Ltd.)
Honda, Chrysler, Hyundai (Bangchan General Assembly Co. Ltd.)
Mitsubishi (MMC Sittipol Co. Ltd.)
Opel (General Motors Thailand Ltd.)
Hino, Toyota Dyna (Hino Motors Thailand Ltd.)
Honda (Honda Automobile Thailand Co. Ltd.)
Isuzu (Isuzu Motors Company Thailand Ltd.)
Nissan, Suzuki (Siam Nissan Automobile Co. Ltd.)
VMC (Siam V.M.C. Automobile Co. Ltd.)
Isuzu modifications (Thai Rund Union Car Public Co. Ltd.)
Volvo (Thai Swedish Assembly Co. Ltd.)
Peugeot, Volkswagen (Y.M.C. Assembly Co. Ltd.)
Mercedes-Benz (Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant Co. Ltd.)
Toyota (Toyota Motor Thailand Co. Ltd.)
BMW, Land Rover, Rover (BMW Manufacturing Thailand Co. Ltd.)
[Source : Thailand Automotive Institute] |
Motorcycles :
The motorcycle industry shows a somewhat different picture. As the graph above shows domestic sales are flat over the last few years (since at least 2007), indicating that the market is saturated with more than 17,000,000 motorcycles on the road at the end of 2010. What is also striking is the almost complete disappearance of export sales. Taking into consideration that 2011 only cover the Januari to September period, exports of motorcycles increased substantially in 2011 though. The overall picture however indicates that probably production has shifted to lower-wage countries, and local production presently serves mainly the local market. |
2011 data only cover the Januari-September period.
See table with number data of motorcycle sales and exports.
| A substantial proportion of cars, and especially PickUps and Public Buses, used in Thailand are quite old. For example, more than 20% of public buses have passed the 20-year mark. |
Source for motorcycle and car production statistics : Thailand Automotive Institute
|
