Thailand June 2020: Isuzu outsells Toyota for the first time, D-Max slams Hilux in market down -35.4%

Euphoric sales of D-Max lift Isuzu to a record market share in Thailand.

14/09 update: Now with Top 70 All-models ranking.

The March, April and May 2020 articles have all been updated with Top 60 models rankings.

The Thai new vehicle market drops -35.4% year-on-year in June to 55.550 units, leading to a year-to-date tally down -37.3% to 328.604. This month Isuzu (+26.1%) completely bucks the negative trend and spectacularly takes the lead of the brands ranking above a freefalling Toyota (-53.8%). Our historical files show that this is the first time in at least 30 years in Thailand that Isuzu outsells Toyota in the monthly charts. Isuzu grabs a record 30% share this month vs. 24% for Toyota and, most strikingly, to be compared with a 15% share a year ago in June 2019. Honda (-52.1%) continues to struggle at 10.5% share vs. 12.6% so far in 2020, with Mitsubishi (-45.7%), Nissan (-35.5%) and Mazda (-47.9%) rounding out the Top 6 as usual. BMW (-2.5%), Suzuki (-3.8%) and MG (-6.9%) all manage to contain their loss to single-digits in the remainder of the Top 10, MG reaching a record 4% share in the process. Below, JAC (+300%), Ssangyong (+50%), Volvo (+28%) and Porsche (+6.4%) all score year-on-year gains but none surpasses 0.3% share.

As expected given the brands volumes, the Isuzu D-Max (+33.7%) completely slams the Toyota Hilux (-58.8%) this month with 55.9% share of the pickup segment vs. 23% for the Hilux and 26.8% of the general market vs. 11%. This is the largest market share by the D-Max since we started following Thailand monthly in 2010 and the lowest for the Hilux since January 2017, potentially due to the model changeover with the facelifted version on sale since June 4. According to our records, the highest annual market share reached by the D-Max is 22.7% in 2006, a year it didn’t even rank #1. Thanks in part to its exceptional performance in June but also 5 monthly pole positions, the D-Max holds 20.6% of the Thai market so far in 2020. The Mitsubishi Triton (-26.6%) also resists well unlike the Ford Ranger (-54.6%), Chevrolet Colorado (-76.9%) and Mazda BT-50 (-91%). The MG Extender breaks its volume record at 661.

Previous month: Thailand May 2020: Small COVID footprint can’t prevent market off -54.1%

One year ago: Thailand June 2020: Honda (+15.1%), MG (+14%) defy first market decline in over 2.5 years (-2.1%)

Full June 2020 Top 25 All-brands and Top 70 All-models below.