Thailand Automotive Outlook, 2020

From 2018 to 2019, the automotive market in Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) shrunk by 2.9% year-on-year (YoY), and total sales reached 3.5 million units. The main reasons include the direct impact of the global economic slowdown on automotive sales and decline in sales in Indonesia (by political election), which is the leader of the ASEAN, with 29.8% share.

In Thailand, passenger vehicle (PV) market sales declined by 2.7% from 481,646 units in 2018 to 468,547 units in 2019. Affordable, energy-saving vehicles (engine displacement less than 1,300 cc) were highly popular with 27.3% share in 2019.

Commercial vehicle (CV) sales decreased by 3.8% from 560,094 units in 2018 to 539,003 units in 2019. One-ton pickups dominated Thailand’s CV market with 91.3% share. In the top-5 OEM list, 4 Japanese OEMs, Toyota, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, and Nissan, held 75.8% market share.

The premium vehicle segment is leading the Thailand’s electric vehicle (EV) market. The total sales of EV reached 10,194 units in 2019. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) held 92.8% of the market share. Limited EV infrastructure and incentives result in low adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Top-3 OEMs, such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo, accounted for 87% of the EV market.

Shared mobility services are offered in major tourist cities such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and Phuket. The total fleet size of car sharing was 15,470 units in 2019. Peer-to-peer (P2P) car sharing providers held more than 90% share. Thailand had 92,500 units of vehicle in the eHailing industry in 2019. Public taxis accounted for 54.6% of the eHailing fleet size. The Thai Government had planned to roll out regulations governing the eHailing industry in March 2020 but there have been no updates on this as of mid-April 2020.

The 3 main bicycle sharing providers in Thailand accounted for 18,500 bicycles in 2018. However, all of them ceased operations in 2019 due to the tropical weather, high operating cost, theft, vandalism, and poor local management. GoBike, Grab, and Get (Go-Jek) offer Motorcycle eHailing, with fleet size of 44,500 units in 2019. Disputes and conflicts happen frequently between eHailing riders and traditional motorcycle taxis. Neuron Mobility and Scoota provided 850 units of eScooter in 2019, concentrating in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Pattaya.