Honda Automobile (Thailand) remains wary of a foray into hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) despite having the fully fledged capacity to make such cars here.
According to chief operating officer Pitak Pruittisarikorn, the Thai market is not yet attractive enough for hybrids or other EV production as demand is too low.
"The HEV models sold in Thailand are limited to the premium segment and far from affordable for average car buyers," he said. "We believe carmakers are not yet ready to make HEVs at affordable prices as demand is pretty small."
And while Honda itself is ready to make HEVs locally, the company needs to wait until the market becomes more mature, said Mr Pitak, putting that threshold at more than 100,000 units sold a year.
At present, the Japanese carmaker is applying the HEV platform to make Accord sedans. A new model with minor changes was introduced yesterday with package prices ranging from 1.66 million to 1.85 million baht.
In 2012 and 2013, Honda used the HEV platform to make Jazz and Civic models for the mid-range segment. It later decided to phase out production of the two.
"Thailand's car market has very little experience in HEVs now," Mr Pitak said. "We need more time for this transition and will possibly take at least 10 years. To expand into battery electric vehicles (BEVs) will take 10 more years for Thailand's automotive industry."
There are four types of EVs. HEVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) were initially developed with two systems: electricity/petrol and electricity/diesel.
Later, BEVs fuelled purely by electricity were developed. Fuel-cell EVs represent the latest technology.
In Thailand, there were 70,285 HEVs and PHEVs of all types last year. Of those, 69,816 were registered as personal cars, according to the Department of Land Transport.
As for BEVs, there were 1,783 units of all types as of last year, but just 59 and 37 respectively were registered as passenger cars and buses, with the rest being electric motorcycles.
In a related development, Honda said yesterday that its car sales fell 1.5% in the first half of the year to 53,952 units.
Honda's market share in passenger cars rose from 31.5% at the end of 2015 to 35.4% as of June.
Mr Pitak said the company still expects to achieve its target of 113,000 cars sold this year, up 0.7% from 112,178 last year.