Overseas Automobile Market Research Report-Thailand

At the same time, Thailand is also an emerging industrialized country, with industry and services being the two main sectors of the country's GDP. Thailand has excellent automobile production conditions and a complete industrial chain. Well-known Japanese companies such as Honda, Toyota, and Nissan are investors in Thailand's major automobile industries. Thailand is currently the third largest automobile exporter in Asia after Japan and South Korea. Thailand is striving to become an automobile manufacturing center in the ASEAN market.

At present, Thailand is in the stage of smart industry transformation. Looking back at the course of Thailand's economic development, it has roughly experienced three modes: " Thailand 1.0" emphasizing agricultural development, " Thailand 2.0" focusing on the development of light industry, and " Thailand 3.0" emphasizing the development of heavy industry to continue to promote economic growth . As a traditional agricultural country, after the industrialization development stage, Thailand's economy has changed from inward-looking to outward-looking. At present, Thailand has entered the 4.0 development stage, which is to increase the added value of products through innovation and application of new technologies, thereby promoting the transformation and upgrading of Thailand's economy and enhancing its competitiveness.

02. Automobile Industry and Automobile Market Conditions

Thailand's automobile industry has two major characteristics. The first is that it is the largest automobile manufacturer in ASEAN, and the second is that it is export-oriented. Among the top ten automobile producers in the world, Thailand ranks tenth. And within ASEAN, Thailand is the country with the highest annual automobile production. At present, the sales volume in the local market is about 1 million vehicles / year, and the automobile production is about 2 million vehicles / year. It is an export-oriented automobile industry. Thailand drives on the left, so the driving position is on the right, which is often called right-hand drive. Therefore, a large part of automobile exports are exported to other ASEAN countries and Australia that also use right-hand drive.

Thailand has 18.17 million cars, with a car ownership of about 261 per 1,000 people (China has about 214 per 1,000 people ). On the other hand, Thailand's per capita GDP is about $ 8,000 (China's is about $ 10,000 ). Judging from the comprehensive ownership and per capita GDP levels, Thailand's automobile consumer market has developed to the middle and late stages of the popularization period. The industry's sales growth rate in the future is relatively low, and Thailand's local automobile market is close to the state of a stock market.

Japanese automakers account for more than 80% of the total production capacity of vehicle manufacturers in Thailand, with Toyota, Ford - Mazda, and Mitsubishi occupying the top three in terms of production capacity share. This is mainly because Thailand's automobile industry was initially developed, and high tariffs were imposed on automobile imports, prompting right-hand-drive Japanese manufacturers to build factories locally. Because Japanese manufacturers have chosen the hybrid technology route, and their hybrid models are priced higher than fuel models, Japanese manufacturers have not been successful in promoting hybrid vehicles in Thailand.

From the perspective of automobile production and sales trends, Thailand's policy to stimulate automobile consumption in 2012-2013 brought a peak in sales. This batch of vehicles will also face elimination and renewal, which will increase the recent automobile consumption demand in the Thai market, and also create opportunities for the development of the new energy vehicle market. In Thailand's light vehicle market, pickup trucks and sedans are the two categories with the highest sales. Among them, the sales of pickup trucks and sedans are 430,000 and 340,000 respectively , accounting for 42% and 33% of the sales respectively . In the sedan category, the sales of small sedans account for nearly 80%. The sales of SUVs and MPVs are relatively small, accounting for 13% and 4% of the sales respectively .

Thailand also has plans to fully promote electric vehicles. Thailand's new energy vehicle market is in its infancy and is still dominated by plug-in hybrid vehicles. Of the approximately 40,000 new energy vehicles sold in 2021 , only about 2,000 were pure electric vehicles , but it is expected that pure electric vehicle sales will exceed 10,000 this year. Therefore, policies are also leaning towards electric vehicles. In 2021 , the National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee ( NEVPC ) of Thailand formulated a comprehensive electric vehicle promotion plan, with the goal of increasing the proportion of EVs in passenger car production to 30% and the proportion of EVs in passenger car sales to 50% by 2030 .

In 2021 , China's exports of new energy vehicles to Thailand showed explosive growth. In addition to investing in factories in Thailand, China also directly exports cars to Thailand, and new energy vehicles account for the vast majority. This reflects the strong competitiveness of China's new energy vehicle products and the strong demand for new energy vehicles among Thai consumers. In 2021 , China exported 48,752 cars to Thailand, including 40,662 new energy vehicles . From January to May 2022 , China exported 29,229 cars to Thailand, including 23,815 new energy vehicles . In less than two years, China's automobile exports have achieved a breakthrough growth.

As early as 2014 , the Thailand factory of SAIC CP Group, a joint venture between China's SAIC Motor Corporation and Thailand's CP Group, was completed and put into production, with a designed annual production capacity of 100,000 units. Great Wall Motor's Rayong factory in Thailand was also officially put into production in 2021 , with an initial annual production capacity of 80,000 vehicles. The media also disclosed BYD's plan to build a joint venture factory with a Thai company. The entry of Chinese manufacturers has broken through the highly concentrated market dominated by Japanese companies. In 2021 , SAIC MG and Great Wall successfully entered the top ten brands, and the products of SAIC and Great Wall are mainly new energy vehicles.

SAIC Zhengda has launched SUVs , sedans, pickups and other products in Thailand, with SUVs being its main selling model . In terms of terminal construction, after years of construction, SAIC Zhengda's channel network almost covers the entire territory of Thailand, and SAIC Zhengda is also actively building charging facilities. After Great Wall Motors launched the GWM brand, it planned to launch nine models and introduced the Ora Good Cat BEV model by import . In terms of terminal construction, Great Wall Motors initially rolled out its channel network with Bangkok as the center and introduced the innovative format of supermarket experience stores.

03. Opportunities and risks in Thailand’s automobile market