An estimated 200,000 orders of cars reserved under the government's subsidised first-car scheme will end up being cancelled, according to Suparat Sirisuwannangkura, chairman of the The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) automotive industry club.
A file photo shows crowds of potential car buyers browsing the displays at the Bangkok Motor Show 2013 in April 2013.
Many customers who wanted to take advantage of the scheme paid deposits or booking fees for cars in 2012.
But based on information gathered from its members, the club said that approximately 200,000 buyers will not actually buy their reserved units, due to the slowdown in the Thai economy and diminishing consumer purchasing power.
Customers have also been tempted into buying other vehicles by attractive promotional campaigns which offer cars at special prices, equalling the savings made on vehicles purchased under the government programme, but without the long waiting times for delivery, the club said.
A total of 1.25 million new cars have been registered for the government scheme which refunds excise tax on cars bought during 2012 after one year of purchase and up to 100,000 baht, on the condition that buyers must own the car for five years.
The 200,000 orders expected to be "dumped" by customers equates to around 16% of the total cars registered under the programme.
The Excise Department earlier said that a total of 1.04 million cars under the project have already been delivered to buyers. Of these, 320,000 buyers have already owned their car for more than one year and have received refunds totalling 22 billion baht.
The department has revised the total figure it expects to refund to 78 billion baht, down from 90 billion baht, because many of the vehicles ordered are pick-up trucks, which command a lower rebate rate for customers.
The department meanwhile found that 4,000 applicants to the first-car scheme have so far cancelled their orders, as of the end of June 2013.