Ford has best quarter ever in Thailand, auto orders rising

Big Three automaker Ford Motor Corporation of the United States registered its strongest quarter ever in Thailand with sales rising 33 percent in the first three months of this year, as orders for vehicles from all manufacturers at the recent Bangkok Motor Show jumped 18 percent over last year, signaling renewed vitality in Thailand’s vehicle market.

“We’ve gotten off to a fantastic start this year, and the segment-defining Ranger continues to drive our overall performance and its own steady segment-share gains,” said Yukontorn Wisadkosin, the Thai president of Ford ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

Ford sold a record 17,235 vehicles in Thailand during the first quarter of 2018, driven by record sales and segment share from the Ranger pickup and Everest SUV. Those sales pushed Ford to a 7.3 percent share of the Thai car market, a 1.1 percent increase over one year ago. The increase outpaced most other vehicle makers in Thailand over the same period.

The Everest mid-sized SUV delivered its best-ever quarterly performance with sales rising 43 per cent year-on-year to 2,530 vehicles, giving it 16.5 percent of the Thai SUV market, an increase of 4.4 percent over last year. The Ranger scored a record quarterly performance with first quarter sales rising 34 percent year-on-year to 14,199 vehicles, giving it a 13.8 percent share of the pickup market, 2.5 percent higher than last year.

Thailand has long been known as the Detroit of Asia because of its large vehicle manufacturing sector and substantial auto market. The market has been dominated by Japanese auto firms, but virtually every major global carmaker has production facilities in Thailand.

The market, however, appears to be undergoing a strong recovery as evidenced by an 18 percent increase in orders for cars, trucks and motorcycles at this year’s Bangkok Motor Show that concluded last week. More than 42,000 orders for vehicles were placed at this year’s show.

Looking towards the future, Thailand’s government is promoting the manufacture and development of electric vehicles as part of its strategy to advance the Thai economy to a higher technology level and to support innovation.

To help build the foundation for electric vehicle use and acceptance among consumers, last week ChargeNow, a partnership that includes BMW Thailand and several Thai companies, opened new charging stations in Bangkok for electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. ChargeNow has opened a total of five charging stations in Bangkok so far.

We “are committed to drive Thailand towards a full-fledged electric society. We now plan to work closely with ChargeNow and our authorized BMW dealers to install 100 charging stations across the country to facilitate and simplify the charging process and eventually pave the way to a sustainable low-carbon environment,” said Christian Wiedmann, president of BMW in Thailand.