WITH the coronavirus pandemic having triggered uncertainty across the globe, here in Thailand all eyes are on the key auto industry but the latest figures for March 2020 are dismal showing a steep plunge of 41.7%, Sanook.com reported this afternoon (28.4.2020).
A total of 60,105 vehicles were sold in March, a giddy drop of 41.7% compared to the same month last year. Passenger car sales drastically dwindled by 48.3% while commercial vehicles growth shrank by 37.6% with the coronavirus pandemic clearly being the reason for the poor performance.
The bigger picture shows that the automobile market dropped by 24.1% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year with 200,064 vehicles sold.
A deeper look at the performance of the auto market in March shows that Toyota continued to rank first when it came to total sales followed by Isuzu and Honda.
However Honda was in the lead in passenger car category followed Toyota and Mazda. Isuzu outperformed the other auto makers in the commercial vehicle category followed by Toyota and Mitzubishi.
CAPTION:
Traffic flowing along Radjadamri Road in Bangkok in the pre-coronavirus days. Photo: Mark Fischer (CC BY-SA 2.0)
