The Thai automobile industry saw another dismal year. Passenger vehicle and the trusty Pick-up Truck saw annual sales dip, not for the first time. SUV sales on the contrary were up by 36% over 2014 with Honda capturing the SUV market and leaving competition far behind.
Amongst SUV's, Honda achieved a 181% jump in sales over the previous year, selling 342,190 units while its closest competitor Nissan, which it barely beat in 2014, struggled to sell 92,880 units through the year. Ford and Chevrolet took a beating and Mazda felt it too as Subaru and Lexus ate into their markets with a 27% and 113% jumps.
Across the passenger vehicle and pick-up truck segments, Toyota continued to hold top spot but has been steadily losing sales every year. This is very much in line with overall market conditions but there has been a steady increase in sales for some other brands such as Mitsubishi, Ford, and Nissan in the pick-up truck segment. While Mazda suffered with their SUVs, they did manage a healthy 67% increase in sales of their passenger vehicles over 2014 numbers. Others with a fruitful year were Hyundai and KIA alongside Ssangyong. However, their sales figures are too small to be considered impactful even though the uptick in percentage sales are north of 25% for all of them.
Relatively new entrant MG finished 10th in unit sales amongst the top 10 vehicles brands sold in 2015, just behind Mercedes, BMW, and Ford, with sales of 3,779 units.
There have been some interesting movements in terms of vehicle sales trends with SUV's seemingly favoured by the Thai consumer and a surge in sales of performance vehicles. 2015 saw 37 Lamborghini's and 7 McLaren's leave their showrooms. Subaru clocked in a more than impressive 239% jump in sales with 217 units hitting the street. Small numbers still for a car priced well lower than a Lamborghini or a McLaren but this could be a signal towards a growing consumer base that aspires for a Lamborghini or a McLaren in the future.
