Domestic car sales are expected to bounce back this year on the back of Thailand's recovering economy.
But there are discrepancies in the forecast figures given by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and Toyota, the country's automotive leader.
Toyota Motor Thailand projects the country's car sales to grow 4% this year to 920,000 units, while the FTI's automotive industry club estimates sales this year to reach 1 million units, a 13.4% increase from the year before.
"We expect domestic vehicle sales to grow at the same pace as Thailand's economy, which is projected to grow by 4.3% this year," said Kyoichi Tanada, president of Toyota Motor Thailand. "Sales in the second half are expected to fare better than the first half."
Toyota and the FTI yesterday separately reported Thailand's domestic car sales fell by 33.7% in 2014 to 881,832 vehicles.
Mr Tanada attributed last year's depressed domestic sales to political mayhem and the low prices of farm products.
However, the automotive industry club said last year's domestic sales reflected real demand in the country after the market was phenomenally propelled by the generous first-time car buyer scheme, which ended in 2012, when sales surged 81% from the previous year.
"I think the market for passenger cars is still facing a downward outlook, but the demand for commercial vehicles will see an increase," said Mr Tanada.
The FTI reported that Thailand's total car output fell sharply by 23.5% in 2014 to 1.88 million units, missing the FTI's target of 2.1 million units.
Motorcycle production for the whole year also dropped by 13.42% to 2.44 million units last year.
Vehicle exports also saw flat growth, with 1.12 million units shipped last year. The flat growth was mainly due to lower purchases from Australia and Asia, where economies have slowed down.
Japan also lowered its imports from Thailand because of the yen's weakness, while shipments to the Middle East also fell sharply in the second half of the year because of intense regional conflicts.
The Ebola outbreak also hit Thai exports to Africa.
However, the value of vehicle exports rose 2.97% to 527.42 billion baht in 2014. Including the shipment value of engines and auto parts, Thailand fetched last year 781.08 billion baht, up 3.56% from the previous year.
The FTI said late last year that Thailand's car production was expected to recover to 2.2 million vehicles in 2015.
Some 1.2 million vehicles would be exported and 1 million sold domestically in 2015.
Thailand's automotive output surpassed 2 million vehicles for the first time in 2012, to 2.453 million vehicles, propelled by the first-time car buyer scheme and huge demand after massive floods hit several provinces including Bangkok in 2011.
Car output rose slightly in 2013 to 2.46 million vehicles, boosted by outstanding back orders under the first-time car buyer scheme. Last year's output marked the first time over the last two years that production missed 2 million units.
"There are now several risk factors for the automotive industry, including sluggish demand in Oceania, Asia and the Middle East, which together account for nearly 75% of Thailand's auto exports," said Mr Surapong.