Toyota Motor Thailand remains keen to capture Thailand's van market, expecting to sell 9,600 vans in 2019, up 23%, as the government clamps down on fixed-route public vans.
Yesterday the manufacturer launched the sixth-generation Commuter, which is assembled at Toyota Auto Works Co (TAW) in Samut Prakan.
The van has two prices -- 1.269 million and 1.299 million baht -- making it costlier than the previous models by 48,000 and 60,000 baht, respectively.
Thailand is the third country to see the roll-out of the Commuter after Japan and the Philippines.
TAW spent 2.5 billion baht to build the new model.
The fifth generation sold in the local market for 15 years, with total sales of 178,000 vans.
Vudhigorn Suriyachantananont, executive vice-president for the Thai unit, said Toyota is optimistic that Thailand's tourism sector has potential enough to boost the van market. Many tourists are demanding to use vans for travel in both primary and secondary provinces.
Vans can be sold to corporate customers as well, with Toyota's vans focusing mainly on commercial purposes.
"The Toyota Commuter could be sold for both fixed and non-fixed routes in the past, but with the change in regulations, Toyota has to comply with road safety standards," Mr Vudhigorn said.
He said Toyota captured a 93% share in the van market with two models, Commuter and Hiace. Both are being assembled at TAW, which has a production capacity of 16,000 units a year and uses 52% local content for its assembly lines.
The other competitor in the segment is Nissan's NV350 Urvan, imported from Japan.
From October 2017 on, fixed-route public vans have been decommissioned for 10-year driving registration and new vans will not be permitted to register as public service vehicles. The aim is to improve public safety under the latest regulation from the Land Transport Department.
The department aims to replace a fleet of more than 12,000 vans with new minibuses by 2028.
In 2018, 1,548 vans were scheduled to be decommissioned.
The Commuter and Hiace are also counted among these existing public vans.
Last week, Toyota announced a new imported 20-seat minibus, the Coaster, in a bid to seize the new market opportunity for public minibuses priced at 1.96 million baht.
"We expect to sell 30-40 minibuses a month," Mr Vudhigorn said.
Chatchai Taveesakulvadchara, executive vice-president, said the Coaster minibus lacks sufficient demand to be assembled at Toyota's facility in Thailand.
"Only 7-8% of van sales are registered as public vans, which is very small for the local assembly line," Mr Chatchai said.
He said the Thai-made Commuter is exported to Vietnam at a clip of 2,500 vans a year. Toyota is seeking new markets for the van's sixth generation.
Toyota Commuter has accumulated sales of 6.3 million units in 150 countries worldwide. The first generation of the Commuter debuted in Japan in 1967.