Thailand May 2016: Market up 16%, largest gain in over 3 years

The Toyota Hilux is back to #1 in Thailand in May but remains #2 year-to-date. 

* See the Top 35 All-brands and Top 65 models by clicking on the title *

Note the April 2016 update has also been updated with a Top 35 All-brands ranking.

It’s official: the Thai market is out of the woods. With a 16% surge in May to 66.055 registrations, new car sales in Thailand register their 4th month of year-on-year gains in the past seven and its biggest improvement since March 2013. The year-to-date tally is still in negative though at -2% to 302.581 units. After struggling for the past six months, Toyota finally manages to outpace the market with volumes up 24% to 22.244 and 33.7% share, its highest since last October. Isuzu is up 17% to 19.3%, Honda up 11% to 14.9% and Mitsubishi up 27% to 6.5%. Further down, Mazda (+23%), Mercedes (+29%), MG (+180%), Subaru (+27%) and Lexus (+110%) also shine.

Outstanding launch in Thailand for the new Honda Civic. 

In the models ranking, after 5 consecutive months of supremacy, the Isuzu D-Max passes back the pole position baton to the Toyota Hilux, but just: at 11.010 vs. 10.549 sales. Never in the past decade had the Hilux been so aggressively challenged, and for now it looks like the FY2016 pole position is well out of reach: after 5 months, the D-Max still has  8.500 sales advantage at 52.797 (+10%) vs. 44.236 (-5%) for the Hilux. Now that local production has resumed with the 1.5 Dual VVT-i engine, the Toyota Vios reclaims the passenger car crown with 3.544 sales (+27%), enough to also install it back to #3 year-to-date. The Honda Civic however is up 5-fold on a year ago thanks to the new generation at 2.880 sales  vs. 1.920 for the Toyota Corolla (+29%). The Nissan Navara (+88%), Toyota Fortuner (+97%) and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (+129%) all owe their spectacular gains to a new model, while among recent launches the Honda BR-V (#19) continues to slide whereas the Suzuki Ciaz (#20) remains solid.

Previous month: Thailand April 2016: Honda Civic up 4-fold to land on podium

One year ago: Thailand May 2015: 8100 new generation Hilux already on the roads

Full May 2016 Top 35 All-brands and Top 65 models below.