Thailand breaks 1 million car sales barrier for the first time

The Toyota Hilux should top the Thai models ranking for the 7th consecutive year in 2012 (Picture by autoevolution).

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While we were expecting Indonesia to be the first South East Asian car market to pass the one million annual units by the end of 2012, it is Thailand that toppled that milestone first thanks to explosive growth over the last few months. A record 1,000,577 new cars found a new home in Thailand over the first 9 months of 2012, up a huge 71% year-on-year! Total domestic sales in 2011 were 794,081 units, placing Thailand at #20 in the world’s biggest car markets ranking. In 2012 it should shoot up to #13, passing countries like Spain, Turkey, Mexico, Australia and… regional rival Indonesia.

* Full Thai models ranking are very rare to come by so if you have any up-to-date passenger car sales info for Thailand please be sure to get in touch by filling the ‘Contact us’ form! *

The Isuzu D-Max is the 2nd best-selling model in Thailand in 2012 so far.

In September alone, the Thai new car market is up 53% year-on-year to reach 132,874 registrations, an all-time monthly record for the Thai industry. Of the total, 68,282 were passenger cars (+68%) and 64,592 were commercial vehicles (+39%). These huge figures have prompted the Department of Land Transport, faced with a shortage of licence plate numbers, to introduce a new licence plate numbering system, placing a numeral in front of the two Thai alphabet characters – for example, 1กก XXXX. This system is expected to remain in use for the next 157 years…

Other Thai September post: Thailand Pick-ups September 2012: Mazda BT-50 impresses

Previous post: Thailand Pick-ups August 2012: Ford Ranger and Mazda BT-50 up

Previous year: Thailand 2011: Toyota Hilux and Isuzu D-Max maintain stranglehold

* See the full article featuring sales detail by month and by brand below *