Richard Jones
richard@pixy.asia
First on stage are the B-Segment vehicles - small cars with an engine size of 1,300 to 1,500 cc. A close race with the Toyota Vios (47,800) just pipping the Honda City (44,444) as the top selling car in this category. The aging Honda Jazz comes a distant 3rd with with only 16,533 sales. Next year expect to see the Mazda 2 break into the top three with the all new 2015 model recently released to rave reviews.
In the C-Segment, cars with engine size of 1,600 to 2,000 cc, the winner is the same as previous years, the all dominant Toyota Altis with 36,593 vehicle sales last year, treble that of the second place Honda Civic (11,385) and the Mazda 3 (8,937).
The luxury end of the car market partly defined by the D-Segment vehicles (engine size of 2,000 to 3,500 cc) sees the Honda Accord (8,744) just beating the Toyota Camry (6,847) to the finish with the Nissan Teana trailing in third with 3,752 sales.
Eco Car manufacturing in Thailand is being heavily incentivised by the government and there's a clear winner for 2014, the all new Toyota Yaris sold 52,809 vehicles, that's more than the next five positions combined. To mention the others though, there's the Nissan Almera (15,680) and the previous year’s most popular, Suzuki Swift (13,340).
Unsurprisingly in the land of the pickup truck, Thailand being the second biggest market in the world, the pickup truck segment accounts for more sales than any other category. The Toyota Hilux Vigo continues its domination (144,693 sales) despite being essentially a 10 year old design competing with much more modern vehicles. Isuzu's loyal following in Thailand sees its popular D-max pickup truck come in second with 128,496 sales followed by the Mitsubushi Triton (33,105) in a distant third.
In the SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) segment, a popular choice in Phuket, contributes only a small proportion of Thailand's overall vehicle sales. Leading the pack is Honda's tried and tested CR-V with 8,398 sales in 2014, followed by Mazda's new-to-Thailand CX-5 (5,634 sales) and finishing-off the podium is one of two non-Japanese vehicles to make our list, the Chevrolet Captiva (2,530).
Another popular segment on the island is the PPV (Pickup-truck based Passenger Vehicle), perhaps unsurprisingly mirroring the results of the pickup trucks they are based upon, we see the Toyota Fortuner (20,156) narrowly beat the Isuzu MU-X (19,040) with Mitsubishi's Pajero Sport coming a distant third (6,394).
The SubCompact SUV / Crossover segment was an interesting one to watch in 2014 with a slew of new and exciting vehicles in its ranks, the charismatic and bubbly Nissan Juke came out on top with 10,236 sales. In second place the Ford Ecosport with 6,289 sales proved a success for the company and is sure to pave the way for other miniaturised small-engined SUVs. Honda's new HR-V finishes off the top three with 3,764 sales.
Lastly the Mini MPV (Multi-Purpose Vehicle) segment sees the Japanese take all the top spots with the Toyota Avanza (4,181) leading the pack followed by both Honda's Freed (3,251) and Mobilio (3,101).
Richard Jones is the Managing Director of BuyCar24 and can be contacted through www.buycar24.com.