Honda tops Thailand bike market for 33rd year, expects 5% growth in 2022

Shiketo Kimura, president of Thai Honda, said Thailand’s motorcycle market continued to grow in 2021 despite negative factors including Covid-19’s impact on logistics and the semiconductor shortage.

He said Honda retained its market leadership for the 33rd year, accounting for 1,236,476 units of the total 1,611,078 units sold this year.

Honda’s family segment maintained its popularity with the Honda Wave 110i ranking number one, with 530,408 units sold, representing a 52 per cent market share.

"In the AT segment, the Honda Scoopy came top with 180,914 units sold, representing 1 per cent growth and accounting for 43 per cent of market share," he said, "In the sport segment, meanwhile, the Honda CRF300L was the best-selling motorcycle, with 6,944 units sold, representing a 5 per cent market share."

Shiketo said the 6-per-cent year on year growth in the Thai motorcycle market last year confirmed that motorbikes remain an important part of the Thai lifestyle.

He said the popularity of AT has continued to rise as the younger generation prefers a motorcycle that’s easy to ride and comes with more storage.

"The AT motorcycle also come in a variety of styles that can match the unique lifestyle of the individual. Various stimulus packages rolled out by the government have continued to stimulate a floundering economy,” he said.

He expects Thailand's motorcycle industry to continue to grow in 2022 with positive factors such as the stimulus package rolled out by the government and people’s desire to get their lives back on track.

He forecasts that the overall market will increase by 2 per cent, reaching 1,644,391 units sold.

"Honda has set a sales target of 1,300,598 units, or 5 per cent growth – larger than that of the overall market," he said.

Thai Honda is also planning to penetrate further into the market this year, including development of two electric motorcycle models – the PCX Electric and Benly – and material cost management, he added.

"Up to eight new motorcycle models will be launched this year," Shiketo said.

As well as positive signs for the industry, the past year also marked an important step for Thai Honda with the merging of the sales and manufacturing departments to maximise their performance in serving the market, he continued.

The merger also allowed Honda to improve after-sales service for customers.

“Apart from motorcycles, Thai Honda is also a manufacturer of Power Products. Our production capacity isn’t limited to just the domestic market, but is also to serve the global market," he said, "Thai Honda is one of Honda’s most important manufacturing and distributing bases for motorcycles and Power Products to meet global demand.”

Thai Honda has a production capacity of 1.76 million motorcycles per year. Of these, 82 per cent are sold within the country and the rest are exported.

Meanwhile, the production capacity for Power Products is 2.7 million units per year. Of these, 93 per cent are exported and the rest sold in Thailand.

“At Thai Honda, our customers’ satisfaction has always been the goal. From this point on, we will do our best to deliver endless satisfaction to our users,” Shiketo concluded.