Thailand Full Year 2019: Dismal last 2 months tilt market into negative (-3.3%) to just above 1 million

The Toyota Hilux is #1 in Thailand for the 13th time in the past 14 years.

Discover 30 years of Thailand Historical Data here.

2019 was quite an atypical year for new vehicle sales in Thailand. A year-on-year drop in June put an end to 29 consecutive months of gains, and the market then endured 7 straight months of decline. However the year-to-date tally remained in positive until end-October but was tilted into negative by a horrendous end-of-year finish -16.2% in November and -21.4% in December. Sales end the year down -3.3% to 1.007.552 units, still only the 2nd time above 1 million sales since 2013. Toyota (+5.5%) drives against the grain with a sold gain, improving its share from an already overwhelming 30.2% to 32.9%. Isuzu (-5.4%) isn’t that lucky and drops from 17.1% to 16.7% while Honda (-1.9%) almost matches the market to hit 12.5%.

In fact there are only two additional gainers in the remainder of the Top 14: Mitsubishi (+4.4%) improves to 8.8% share but remains at #4, ending an incredible streak of 31 consecutive year-on-year gains in November. The hero of the year is once again Chinese carmaker/local producer MG (+11.7%) delivering the only double-digit gain in the Top 14, stepping up one spot on 2018 to #8 overall with a record 2.6% share. MG broke its all-time share record 3 times in 2019, lifting it to 3.3% in December, posting its first ever 3%+ share months over the last 3 consecutive months of the year and breaking its all-time monthly volume in December at 2.951.

Model-wise, the Toyota Hilux (+9.6%) signs a 13th win in the past 14 years and a 14th win in the past 20 years, defying the market with a superb gain to over 165.000 registrations, the highest annual volume of any nameplate in Thailand since 2013. Despite a new model launched in Q3, the Isuzu D-Max (-3.9%) sees its gap with the Hilux widen from just 1.350 in 2018 to almost 22.000 this year. The Ford Ranger (-21.7%) ensures the podium is 100% locally-made pickup truck for the third straight year. The Mazda2 (-6.9%) is estimated to hold onto the 4th spot and #1 passenger car above the Toyota Yaris (-0.3%) estimated to overtake the Mitsubishi Triton (-10.4%) to step up to #5 overall. Below, the Honda Civic (+13.7%), City (+11.8%), Toyota Yaris Ativ (+10.5%) and Fortuner (+10.2%) all post fantastic double-digit gains. The Mitsubishi Xpander (#15), MG ZS (#17) and Toyota Camry (#21) all surge ahead in the charts.

Previous month: Thailand November 2019: MG (+31.1%) resists worst market performance since May 2015 (-16.2%)

Previous year: Thailand 2018: Toyota Hilux reclaims top spot in market up 19.5%

Two years ago: Thailand 2017: Isuzu D-Max snaps crown off Toyota Hilux for first time in 12 years

Full Year 2019 Top 32 All-brands and Top 85 models vs. Full Year 2018 figures below.

Full December 2019 Top 26 All-brands below.