November car sales hit record high

November car sales hit record high

Car sales for November by all car-makers totaled 148,243 units, up 447.6% over last November, Vudhigorn Suriyachantananont, Toyota Motor Thailand’s senior vice president, said on Wednesday.

EPA photo

Of the total, 77,743 units were passenger cars, 70,500 were commercial vehicles which included 60,805 of one-tonne pickup trucks, Mr Vudhigorn said.

The total number of cars sold in November was a month-on-month high for the year. It came as manufacturers recovered from the devastating flood last November, he said.

The government’s first car buyer scheme and the car-makers' moves to increase production capacity to fill previously placed orders were also reasons behind the substantial increase in sales, he added.

Sales over the first 11 months (Jan to Nov) were up from the same period last year by 74.7% to 1.29 million, up 79.7% for passenger cars and 70.5% for commercial vehicles, on the back of strong demand, said the senior vice president.

Mr Vudhigorn expected car sales to continue to further expand in December, boosted by the first car programme and the more than 85,000 vehicle sales booked during the recent International Motor Expo 2012.

Total sales for the full year would be in the range 1.4 million to 1.43 million units, he added.

He projected car market next year at more than 1.2 million units, on the back of a huge the number of  back-orders spurred by the first-car tax rebate scheme.

The Excise Department expects about 1.2 million new car owners to have registered for the tax rebate by the end of December under the scheme.

All car-makers would be able to deliver only 700,000 of the ordered cars to clients before the end of  this year, with delivery of the remaining 500,000 units next year. Therefore, the overall car market in 2013 would not show a severe decline as had been feared, he said.

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