Thailand’s domestic automobile sales slumped to the lowest in 14 years last year, denting its reputation as the “Detroit of Asia,” as demand was squeezed by stricter bank-loan approvals and high household debt.
Domestic sales fell 26 percent to 572,675 units last year, a figure not seen since 2010, Surapong Paisitpattanapong, spokesman of the automobile industry group at the Federation of Thai Industries, told a briefing yesterday. Last month alone, sales dropped 21 percent from a year earlier to 54,016 units.
A major impediment was the reluctance of finance companies to approve car loans, as the rejection rate nationwide was about 70 percent for the year, Surapong said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Thai government has unveiled a raft of debt-relief measures, including ones for people struggling to pay back auto loans. Thailand has the highest level of household debt in Southeast Asia at about 86 percent of GDP, government data showed.
Meanwhile, the country’s auto exports last year dropped a more modest 8.8 percent to 1.02 million units, just short of the annual target of 1.05 million, the spokesman said. December exports dropped more than 15 percent year-on-year to 76,346 units.
Total production last year fell 20 percent to 1.47 million vehicles from 2023, with a 17 percent drop in December.
Auto production for this year is seen edging slightly higher to 1.5 million units, with two-thirds for export and the rest for the domestic market, he said.
Separately, Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc and German auto giant BMW AG have challenged EU import tariffs on China-made electric vehicles (EVs) at the bloc’s top court, the European Commission said on Monday.
The carmakers — which both manufacture EVs in China — followed challenges filed with the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) by Chinese automakers BYD Co (比亞迪), Geely Holding Group Co (吉利控股集團) and SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車) against the extra tariffs of up to 35 percent.
“We take note of these cases and we look forward to defending ourselves in court,” commission spokesman Olof Gill said.
Brussels imposed the extra tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars at the end of October last year after an anti-subsidy investigation concluded Beijing’s state support was unfairly undercutting European automakers.
Additional reporting by AFP
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