Mr. Michinobu Sugata, President of Toyota Motor Thailand Company Limited, announced the car sales performance during the first half of 2020, as well as the 2020 Thai automotive outlook in the online Mid-Year Press Conference held on 23 July 2020.

Mr. Sugata said, “Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, Toyota Motor Thailand initiated "Toyota Stay with You" project in collaboration with our dealers and suppliers nationwide to help alleviate the hardships of Thai people and societies until its end with our determination to ensure that "No one is left behind". 

The pandemic situation has impacted the overall domestic and global economy, resulting in the drop in domestic sales and export in the first quarter, and has continued on to the second quarter. However, with series of relaxations being announced, businesses can gradually resume as normal under the Government’s preventive measures. It is predicted that the economy tends to recover during the second half of 2020.”     

Automotive Market Situation in the First Quarter of 2020

Mr. Sugata said, “At the beginning of this year, we announced the total vehicle market in Thailand to be at 940,000 units, with Toyota sales of 310,000 units. However, during the first quarter of this year, the total market ended up with 200,000 units, accounting for a 76% of the sales performance in the same period last year, and Toyota sales marked 56,200 units, representing a 65% of Toyota sales year on year.”

However, with the rapid spread of the COVID-19 in the middle of March, we have seen the sudden demand drop in the Thai market as well as our export countries. The landscape of our business has become completely different from our original plan.  

At Toyota, we were obliged to shut down our manufacturing operations from April 7 to the middle of May and our dealers have had virtually no customers’ traffic to their show rooms.

Nonetheless, even during the shut-down period, our plant employees conducted necessary maintenance of our facility, equipment, and their own skills by reporting to their respective work places every other day on the alternate basis.  Simultaneously, our office employees implemented the work from home as much as possible. Therefore, we have kept all of our employees with no lay-offs, and I highly appreciate all of them for showing the strong team spirit in completing their job assignments as well as staying safe and healthy.

Similarly, all of our 155 nationwide dealers also have secured their employments. The sales front-liners have tried to contact with our customers via on-line or social media, and the after-sales service front-liners tried to invite customers to fix their cars at the service shops or conducted mobile services to protect their cars as the indispensable life-line under the circumstances. Taking this opportunity, I also would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of our dealers.  

I would also like to convey our deepest gratitude to the Governors of Samutprakarn and Chachengsao provinces, where our 3 plants are located, for supporting us in transporting our new vehicles and service parts among the nationwide provinces even under the curfew. They also happily allowed Toyota to restart the manufacturing operations in May.  I was really overwhelmed to see that our factory employees were very happy to get back to their work.  At present, our operations keep running quite smooth, and we will be increasing the output further from this month onward. We will continue giving our utmost care to the health and safety of our employees, and maintaining the preventive measures strictly in line with the government’s guideline.”

Mr. Sugata further added, “Passing through the COVID outbreak and the production shut-downs, the Thai auto market during the second quarter sank to approximately 128,500 units, which is 49% versus the same quarter last year, with Toyota sales of 38,100 units, which is a 45% versus last year. On the other hand, if we look at monthly performance during the second quarter, we can see that we are on a recovery track. With the series of relaxation measures by the Government, the consumers’ sentiment seems to be getting better.”

Toyota Domestic Vehicle Sales in January – June 2020

2020 Auto Market Sales Forecast 

Mr. Sugata projected, “As far as the automotive business is concerned, Thailand was not hit as harsh as other ASEAN countries and its recovery seems to be faster. Therefore, even though it should not be overestimated, I have somewhat optimistic view about the market outlook in Thailand, meaning that it will not be as bad as we thought. And, I highly expect that Thailand will lead the way to the recovery of the whole Asia for the rest of the year. On top of the positive trend seen month by month, the 41st Bangkok International Motor Show has successfully been organized and is now generating the good traffic of visitors in this month. By taking these positive signs into account, we have revised our market forecast for the year 2020 to 660,000 units, which is a 65% of last year's performance.”

Mr. Sugata added, “As for Toyota sales performance during the first half of the year, we have been adjusting our production and sales to make sure our new model introductions would be in time. Therefore, we are going to shift up our gear towards the latter half of the year with our new products. Last month, we launched the new Hilux Revo and Fortuner under the concept of "Unbeatable" to reflect the unbeatable character of Thailand and the Thai people as proven in controlling the pandemic. The customers’ reactions to these new models have been quite favorable and with the further recovery of our production volume, we will accelerate our momentum.

In addition, earlier this month, our brand-new SUV “Corolla Cross” also made a smash debut with the tag-line of "A New Journey". The model has marked another important milestone as the groundbreaking product in a new category that Toyota has never tapped into before. Allow me also to add that we introduced the new T-Connect with New Hilux Revo, Fortuner, and all-new Corolla Cross. This is our first “connected” project in Asia, jointly developed in Thailand by Toyota and Toyota group suppliers, with a wide range of functions such as Theft Track system, Find my Car, and Concierge Services.

On top of those, we also offer the very first in Thailand car insurance package called “Toyota Care Pay How You Drive” or PHYD by monitoring the driving behaviors with the new T-Connect technology. When drivers show good behaviors in driving, they can enjoy big discounts in insurance premium at the second year renewal timing. We sincerely hope that our PHYD will work as a good incentive for safety driving and help reduce traffic accidents in Thailand. 

We are glad to see that these new models are attracting the biggest number of visitors to Toyota booth in the on-going Bangkok International Motor Show. Together with strong Toyota Dealer network in Thailand, we are confident to regain our ground and penetrate into the market further.

Along with our new products, we have set our new sales target for this year at 220,000 units, or 66% versus the previous year, accounting for a 33.3% market share. With the positive trend in the market, we will challenge to aim higher.”

Forecast of Thai Domestic Vehicle Sales in 2020

Forecast of Toyota Domestic Vehicle Sales in 2020

When we look at our CBU export for the first half of 2020, we ended up with 97,000 units, representing a 30% decline from the same period last year. However, we are seeing some positive signs from the Oceania region and some countries in Asia. Therefore, we adjusted our CBU export forecast for this entire year to 194,000 units, or a 73% versus last year. As for our production, as we are catching up with the better-than-expected domestic and international auto market outlook, we expect our production volume in 2020 to reach 408,000 units, representing 71% versus last year’s output."

Mr. Sugata further revealed, “Amid the biggest challenge for all the human beings over the past decades, I am respectful to Thailand and its nationals for displaying the strong spirit and power of unity. I sincerely hope that Thailand will be one of the first group of countries to emerge from the crisis, and Team Toyota Thailand is willing to contribute to make it happen with the solid foundation of Thai economy."

Mr. Sugata concluded, “Having said all that, allow me to reiterate our sincere appreciation to the Thai Government, our customers, and all of our stakeholders for extending warm support to Team Toyota Thailand even during this difficult time. 

We stand firm on our global direction to ensure that Thailand be our key regional hub for manufacturing and export. We are committed to creating the growth in Thailand with the prosperity of the Thai Auto Industry.”