Declining purchasing power in the region has caused many large markets such as Thailand and Indonesia to see sales decline in 2024 – Photo: Wapcar
As of early February, vehicle sales figures for major Southeast Asian markets have been fully released. The overall trend in leading markets is downward, such as Indonesia, Thailand and to some extent Malaysia. In contrast, the two markets at the bottom of the top 5, the Philippines and Vietnam, are showing signs of improvement.
For Thailand, the 2024 sales that this market achieved were 572,675 vehicles – a sharp decrease of 26.2% compared to 2023. This is also the lowest sales level that this market has witnessed in the past 14 years.
A major problem with the decline is that the Thai auto industry is structured to meet the demand of at least 600,000 vehicles sold per year. If sales fall below that level, many suppliers and parts companies could be at risk of closing.
Pickup trucks – the leading segment in the Thai market for many years, also failed to maintain growth momentum and declined along with the general trend in 2024 – Photo: Isuzu
Most car brands present in Thailand are down because of the above-mentioned sharp decline. Car brands that rely heavily on pickup trucks (Thailand’s number 1 segment) are down the most, such as Isuzu (-43.7%) or Ford (-42.7%). Major car brands such as Toyota (-17.1%), Honda (-18.8%) or Chinese cars such as MG (-36.9%), BYD (-11.2%) also suffer the same fate.
In Southeast Asia’s most populous country, Indonesia, their 2024 car sales reached 865,723 units, which is higher than the original revised target (1.1 million to 850,000 units) but still down 13.9% compared to 2023.
Leading car manufacturers in this market are Toyota (-14.2%), Daihatsu (-13.3%), Honda (-31.8%), Mitsubishi (-6.7%) and Suzuki (-17.6%) all recorded declining sales. Due to the decrease in purchasing power, Indonesia also only set a target of selling 750,000 – 900,000 cars in 2025.
Toyota is still the leading brand in most Southeast Asian markets but cannot escape the decline – Photo: Toyota
In Malaysia, sales of major car brands also decreased in 2024, however, the “domestic” brand Perodua grew strongly, helping this market have non-negative sales.
Specifically, total car sales in Malaysia were 816,747 units in 2024, a slight increase of 2.1%. Perodua accounted for nearly half of the sales with 385,102 units – a new record sales, equivalent to an increase of 8.4%.
Meanwhile, Toyota decreased by 5.2%, Mitsubishi decreased by 25.6%, Mazda decreased by 24.9%, Nissan decreased by 23.5%, only Honda grew along with Perodua with an increase of… 2%.
Malaysia, without Perodua, would have had a year of decline along with Thailand and Indonesia – Photo: Borneo Post Online
Another major market in the region, the Philippines, is expected to see more consistent growth rather than relying on a single automaker. In 2024, the country will see 467,252 vehicles, up 8.7% from 2023.
The leading car manufacturers in the country are Toyota (accounting for nearly half of the market share at 46.66%), Mitsubishi (19.07%), Ford (5.99%), Nissan (5.73%) and Suzuki (4.36%).
In this group, 3 Japanese brands except Nissan all grew around 10% while Ford decreased 10.6% and Nissan decreased slightly by 1.3%.
Previously in mid-January, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) announced that total domestic sales in 2024 were estimated at 340,142 vehicles, up 12.6% compared to 2023. This is a stable result considering that the domestic market decreased by 25% in the previous year.
Thus, in terms of total sales, Indonesia still leads the Southeast Asian region while Malaysia rises to second place, far surpassing Thailand in third place. The Philippines ranks fourth while Vietnam ranks fifth.
Source: Vietnam Insider