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Thailand Full Year 2015: Hilux holds onto #1 in market down 10%

Toyota Hilux Revo Thailand May 2015. Picture courtesy autodeft.comThe Toyota Hilux remains #1 despite sales down 17%.

* Now updated with the Top 40 brands and Top 200 All-models. Click on title to see *

2015 is the third consecutive year of recession of the Thai new light vehicle market, with a further 9% drop after -8% in 2013 and -33% in 2014, pulling annual sales from 1.32 million units to just under 800.000 in the space of two years. Thai sales have now bottomed out, with November (+5%) and December (+12%) the first year-on-year gains in 29 months. Toyota keeps the lead of the brands ranking by far despite sales down 19% to 265.578 and sees its market share thaw from 37% a year ago to 33.2%. Isuzu follows the market at -10% and 18% share while Honda gains 5% to 14% and Mitsubishi is down 5%, resulting in an improved 7.5% share. Mazda (+15%), Suzuki (+5%), Mercedes (+11%), BMW (+5%), Hyundai (+4%) and Subaru (+34%) also manage to post year-on-year gains. MG surges to #14 overall with 3.779 deliveries for its first full year in market as a local producer.

Isuzu D-Max Thailand 2015The Isuzu D-Max improves its market share to 14.9%.

In the models ranking, despite its first overahaul in a decade, the Toyota Hilux sheds a worrying 17% off its 2014 score to 120.112 deliveries, only 1.390 more than the Isuzu D-Max (-8%). In December, the D-Max even slaughtered the Hilux at 16.841 sales vs. 9.902.

Toyota Fortuner Thailand August 2015. Picture courtesy bangkokpost.comThe Toyota Fortuner ranked #3 in August, September, October and December…

The Toyota Yaris remains the best-selling passenger car in the country despite freefalling (-31%) at a similar rate as its two pursuants, the Toyota Vios (-26%) and Honda City (-25%). The Thai market structure is moving towards a lot more SUVs – in line with a worldwide trend: the Toyota Fortuner is boosted up 54% by the new generation launched in July, reaching a best-ever 6.671 sales in December when it ranked #3 overall and the Honda HR-V lands at a spectacular 7th place for its first full year in market, peaking at #4 in June.

Mitsubishi Pajero Sport Thailand November 2015…while its archenemy the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport was #3 in November with 7% share.

But the most impressive result is without a doubt delivered by the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, whose previous generation was never a hit, but suddenly surged to third place overall and 7% market share in November, the highest share hit by a passenger car since Thailand became the pickup factory of the world. Far from being a fluke, the Pajero Sport confirmed this exceptional score in December with a record 5.465 sales and 5.5% share. Other great performers this year include the Mazda2 up 3-fold to #13 thanks to the launch of the sedan variant, the Nissan X-Trail up to #24 and Ford Everest up to #28.

MG5 Thailand 2015. Picture courtesy headlightmag.comMG5 – China’s MG is slowly starting to make its mark in Thailand. 

The Suzuki Ciaz is the best-selling all-new nameplate for the year but fails to really make a mark at #34 and 3.683 sales. The brand event of the year in Thailand is the settling in of Chinese carmaker MG, now assembling locally. Its MG3 lands at #37 with 3.204 sales, the MG6 remains discreet at #76 and 335 units but the MG5 launchd in November is already knocking on the Top 40’s door in December.

Previous month: Thailand November 2015: Mitsubishi Pajero Sport outsells Toyota Fortuner to #3

Previous year: Thailand Full Year 2014: Toyota Hilux leads, Yaris on podium

Two years ago: Thailand Full Year 2013: Toyota, Isuzu and Honda on podium

Full Year 2015 Top 40 All-brands and Top 200 All-models vs. Full 2014 figures below.

Full December 2015 Top 37 All-brands and Top 50 models below.

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