Thailand’s new vehicle market expanded by 5% to 52,229 units in May 2025, up from weak year-earlier sales of 49,871 units, according to the latest wholesale data released by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
May was the second consecutive month of growth for the market, after two years of sharp declines - blamed largely on tight lending criteria by banks and auto finance companies in response to a sharp rise in non-performing loans (NPLs). This has left the country’s highly indebted consumers and small businesses struggling to access financing. Vehicle sales last year fell by 26% to a fifteen-year low of 572,675 units.
The market last month continued to be driven by strong sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), mainly by Chinese automakers as they continued to ramp up local production to compensate for their earlier imports under the Thai government’s EV3.0 investment incentive programme. Sales of pickup trucks continued to fall sharply, however.
In the first five months of 2025 the Thai vehicle market declined by 3% to 252,615 units from 260,365 units in the same period last year, with sales of pickup trucks falling by 17% to 62,467 units; passenger pickup trucks 15,365 units (-7%); internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger vehicles 62,553 units (-11%); and hybrid vehicles 55,374 units (-6%), while sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) increased by 23% to 53,955 units.
The Thai government is considering introducing scrappage incentives to encourage owners to trade in their old pickup trucks for new ones. Earlier this year the government launched a THB 5 billion loan-guarantee programme, which runs until the end of the year, to support pickup truck purchases by local small and medium-sized businesses. So far, this has not had a significant impact on pickup truck sales, however.
Surapong Paisitpatanapong, vice-chairman of the FTI’s Automotive Industry Club, supports the government’s scrappage incentive proposal, saying: "We support the trade-in programme for pickups. It should increase sales by between 50,000 and 100,000 vehicles. In fact, it would be better if the government extended this measure to cover passenger cars too."
Thailand remains the ASEAN region’s largest vehicle producer, despite an 8% drop in output to 594,492 units in the first five months of 2025. Exports fell by 10% to 390,095 units, due to sluggish overseas demand, rising competition from China-based automakers and tightened emissions regulations in some key markets.
The FTI last month said it expects full-year vehicle output to drop to 1.4 million units in 2025, down from the 1.5 million units it had forecast earlier in the year. This compares with 1.84 million units produced in 2023. Vehicle and component manufacturers also face the added pressure of new import tariffs in the US.
Story Continues"Thai vehicle sales rise 5% in May" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand.
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