FTI’s auto club sees economic bump to translate in EV sales increase

Surapong Paisitpattanapong, vice president of the FTI’s auto club, was responding to articles in Thai publications speculating that made-in-Thailand EVs have saturated the local market, leading EV sales to flop.

Surapong disagreed, arguing that negative growth in February had extended beyond EV sales to include reduced sales of pickups and engines with internal comustion engines. February’s negative growth was mainly due to a general economic slowdown that continued from the Covid-19 pandemic, Surapong said.

He also denied that the locally manufactured EVs had already saturated the domestic market with only 766 EVs being made in Thailand in February, and only around 1,400 EVs if the first two months of 2024 were combined.

Surapong said the EV manufacturing capacity would increase from the middle of this year.

He said a total of 133,690 vehicles, including EVs, were made in February this year, a drop of 19.28% year-on-year and 5.92% from January. As well, the number of vehicles made for domestic sale had dropped 9.25% from the previous month.

Surapong said the manufacturing of vehicles for exports in February dropped 32.96% because the manufacturers of spare parts had reduced making some key parts due to several factors.

He noted that the local market faced competition by imports of EVs from China. Also, the lower production of pickups would reflect that some pickup buyers were unsuccessful in getting loans from finance companies.

Counting the January and February figures shows that a total of 275,792 vehicles were made, a drop of 15.90% from the same period of last year, Surapong said. He said 50,441 sedan cars alone were produced in February, a drop of 14.56% from February last year.

He recognised that EV sales during the first two months of this year were not high – but not because of falling demand.

Rather, demand remained high, but some potential buyers were unable to obtain loans as their income had decreased and they had accumulated debt due to the economic crisis caused by the Covid pandemic.

Surapong said the auto club believed vehicle sales, and particularly EV sales, would improve in the second half.

He said the auto club expected that the government would speed up spending its budget during the second half to revive the economy. Similarly, the club also expected that the Bank of Thailand would reduce the policy interest rate, which would also contribute to economic growth and result in increasing purchasing power.

Moreover, Surapong said, the BOT would take measures to help additional debtors who own money to non-banks or loan sharks, building on the 100,000 who have been helped.

All of these would translate into an improved economy and increased purchasing power of would-be vehicle buyers.