Thailand's Car Ownership Reaches 31 Per Cent

[Jai Dee]

Thailand's car ownership reaches 31 per cent

About 14 million Thais, or 31 per cent of the population over the age of 20, now own a car, media reports said Thursday.

According to a recently released regional survey by Nielsen Media Research, Thailand ranks fifth worldwide in terms of the number of total cars owned, estimated at 14 million, and has one of the highest car ownership percentages in Asia, said the Bangkok Post.

At 31 per cent of the adult population, Thailand ranked above Singapore (21 per cent), Hong Kong (16 per cent) and the Philippines (10 per cent), but below Malaysia (67 per cent), Taiwan (66 per cent) and South Korea (74 per cent).

China and India, although ranked among the fastest growing markets for automobiles, still have fairly low percentages of car ownership at 6 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, said the Nielsen survey.

The US ranked first with the highest percentage of car ownership among adults at 89 per cent, or nine in every 10 adults, and a total of some 190.3 million vehicles. Japan was excluded from the survey.

Source: M&C News - 03 May 2007

[hkt83100]

Thailand's car ownership reaches 31 per cent

How many of these cars are paid for in cash?

[Tony Clifton]

Thailand's car ownership reaches 31 per cent

How many of these cars are paid for in cash?

Does that matter?

How many patrol cars are there to monitor all that traffic?

[torrenova]

Interesting point is the way they are paid for. My missus is trying to buy one now but is getting asked for 25% down. Whilst not exactly unreasonable, there is no way that all these new cars have 25%+ paid down, or have guarantees on land or government income of 30k+ per month.

So where and how do the Thais finance them ? Wish I knew as we would prefer to put less than 25% down if at all possible.

[TopDogger]

Thailand's car ownership reaches 31 per cent

I wonder where they did the survey? Stood outside a multistorey carpark?

[SiamSquare123]

i have a hard time believing this number is correct. is a motorcycle considered a car?

[Levent]

I get the feeling they say 'one of the highest car ownership percentages in Asia' as something to be proud of. I don't think however that many people in Singapore don't have cars because they can't afford them, but rather because of their bloody good public transport system - and the limited size of the country of course.

So, 31% has cars... but how many of them actually know how to drive?

[Dakhar]

I wish it was a figure to be proud of, meaning a low figure indicates a strong well developed mass transit system.... but that is not what the figure represents. It represents trying to catch up or be ahead of others. It represents more polution, more consumption of oil, and more traffic.

Wow, something to be proud of for sure.

I'd rather see them bragging about "green" cars etc. My thoughts apply to any country regarding this matter.

[LivinLOS]

Seems odd numbers.. 5th in the world in total car ownership ?? At 14 million..

Well article says US has 190 mil at first..

China has a pop of 1.3 billion and 6% ownership ?? Lets say only 50% of population are >20 (amazing lowball) thats 650 million people for 6% making 39 million.. So they are above..

India has pop of give or take 1.1 billion.. Again 50% for >20 means 550 mil.. at 9% is 49.5 million.. Again up there..

So we already have 3 spots from 4 taken ?? Only need to find 1 more globally. Thailand has a pop of lets say 62 mil..

The uk has a 60 mil population.. But a ###### sight higher % car ownership (some 70% I read).. Germany has a population of 82mil.. France has a population of 60mil, perhaps a hair under Thailand, more people own cars in Thailand than france per pop ?? Your joking !!! Italy pop at 58 is about 5% less than Thailand but theres not 5% more cars owned by pop ?? Indonesia has a population of nearly 4x Thailand's, doesn't have more cars ??

Even S Korea with a pop of 49 million v Thailand's 62 (+- 20% diff) has a car ownership of 74% v 31.. Seems like they should have more total cars ??

USA

China

India

Germany

France

UK

Italy

S Korea

Indo ??

And Thailands 5th ??

Edited May 4, 2007 by LivinLOS

[Plus]

Only 5% of these 14 mil are new cars, the rest are second hand and it appears they last 20 years

on average.

Some companies only ask for 15% downpayment, normally Thais want to pay in cash as much as possible and borrow as little as possible and they understand the money lost through interest payments. It's only recently that car financing business started to pick up.

The vast majority, perhaps 80%, are cars in 600k range, 48 months credit on those might be as low as 8-10k per month.

Second hand cars are almost all paid in cash as interest on financing them is a lot higher.

Thailand, as an aspiring developing country, wants to follow the pack have the same car ownership rate as the west, so it's behind Malaysia, Korea and Taiwan but ahead of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Only Philippines have a surprisingly low rate. Singapore and Hong Kong are city states, they don't count.

[chanchao]

I have a hard time believing it too.

A third of ALL (adult) people? And counting 1 car per family as just one car for one person and not all family members (parents, couple) as being car owners?

Anyway, surely the Transport Department knows pretty accurately how many cars are actively on the road, they issue license plates and collect yearly tax after all. Even when no tax is paid for a number of cars, they should still be able to come up with a highly accurate number.

Edited May 4, 2007 by chanchao

[chanchao]

Continued: Monthly and yearly sales figures are usually given in the Motoring section of the BK Post. Currenlty around 700,000 vehicles are sold in Thailand per year. Say that this is lower in the past, so let's pick 500,000 vehicles yearly.

Cars stay on the road for at least 15 years. Probably longer, but going further back it's not likely the yearly sales would still be approaching 500K, so let's say 15 years.

In 15 years, you then get to 7.5 million cars. That's half the claimed figure.. I doubt that when you go back further in time that car sales were up to 500,000.. So I don't see how you can get up to 14 million cars currently on the road, much less 'vehicle owners' because a lot of vehicles are taxis/songthaews, owned by companies, police/government/military, etc.

[LivinLOS]

Only 5% of these 14 mil are new cars, the rest are second hand and it appears they last 20 years

on average.

Some companies only ask for 15% downpayment, normally Thais want to pay in cash as much as possible and borrow as little as possible and they understand the money lost through interest payments. It's only recently that car financing business started to pick up.

We know very different Thais !!!

The majority I know that have any credit rating at all are leveraged up to the hilt.. Ones just had a car repossessed.. One had one little bit of high season luck and immediate action (from someone who never had more than the money in his wallet before) was to run out and buy the most expensive car they would give him.. Theres not a hope he can make the payments.

I just bought a car off a Thai lad who was desperate.. earnt 4.5k a month and had a car worth >200k (not what I paid of course).. I had to go pay his car debt off as part of the deal and after it all he ended up with clearing his debts and all payments made as a total loss.. He probably paid as much to 'own' it for 1 year on credit as I did to buy it outright. All his savings lost and no asset to show for it.

In another case a woman I know was given a 6 months interest free credit arrangement (dont think its a visa but some kind of debit card or store card with short term interest free credit ??).. She went and purchased a flat screen LCD for the bedroom !!! Spent maybe 60k.. She doesnt have any assets to name and an income per month less than 10k.. Mia farang tho so she will just pass that on.

Credit culture has burst onto the scene here at a speed that has not allowed either the population or the lenders to get a handle on it IMO..

[chanchao]

BINGO:

http://www.thaiauto.or.th/Records/eng/vehi...hoesale_eng.asp

This clearly shows the following:

The total number of vehicles *that are for private use* in the last 14 years (1993-2006) was 5.8 million.

I took out all the bus & heavy truck sales. I DID count pick-up trucks, vans and 4WD vehicles.

Then the numbers are:

Year Total private vehicles

1993 413971

1994 429663

1995 507029

1996 525611

1997 337218

1998 134630

1999 208128

2000 248950

2001 286094

2002 397574

2003 513130

2004 599576

2005 663274

2006 544302

There's no older data, and the Asian Economic crisis is clearly visible. You can assume that the trend of 1996 -> 1993 would continue further in the past, say each year since 1987 the yearly total increased with 40,000 vehicles. Then you would get for the years 1987 - 1992

1987 173971*

1988 213971*

1989 253971*

1990 293971*

1991 333971*

1992 373971*

* are estimates.

Then you have an estimate the TOTAL number of vehicles sold in the last 20 years, around 7.5 million.

That's TOTAL vehicles EVER sold in Thailand during the past 20 years.

Therefore I conclude the article in the original post, is rubbish. Unless of course you say that a car can be 'owned' by a couple / family, then the total number of 'vehicle owners' could be in the 14 million realm. But even then that doesn't allow for a whole lot of cars being destroyed, trucked off to Cambodia or otherwise disappearing from the Thai scene.

Edited May 4, 2007 by chanchao

[chanchao]

Suppose 6 million of those cars are still around, and actually privately owned (so taking out pick-ups, vans and cars owned by companies or government).

Around 65% of the population is aged 18-65, when people would mostly own vehicles. That's around 39 million people.

6 million cars for 39 million people. Most people are in a relationship of some kind and I think it would be fair to call both parties in the relationship a 'vehicle owner'. That is indeed around 30% then. However the number of 14 million for sure is incorrect, and so, likely, are any comparisons between other countries.

Typical case of THE BANGKOK POST AND ARTICLES WITH A NUMBER IN THEM... Not worth the effort of reading them.

Edited May 4, 2007 by chanchao

[misterme]

Reminds me of the article stating Unemployment in Thailand was under 2%

Remember, just because it's printed, doesn't make it a fact.

[TopDogger]

Reminds me of the article stating Unemployment in Thailand was under 2%

Remember, just because it's printed, doesn't make it a fact.

It was 1% wasnt it?

[chiang mai]

And Thailand's drivers license holder ownership reaches 14% (ish), er, not including the ones that paid for their licenses.

[Ijustwannateach]

I don't see any information in the article to indicate that multiple cars owned by the same owner were removed (in the case that you are trying to determine the percentage of car OWNERS, not just cars). Considering the deep gulf between rich and poor, it seems much more likely to me that there are a much smaller number of car OWNERS who each own a much higher than average (for developed countries) number of cars each, and many poor citizens who own no cars at all.

For example, let's say there's a group of 1 million relatively rich Thais who each own an average of 3 cars apiece- that's 2 million "owners" cut out right there; down to 12 million owners and not yet looked at the relative middle class where one owner may have an average of 2 cars (cut out another 2-3 million "owners?")

"S"

[DP25]

BINGO:

http://www.thaiauto.or.th/Records/eng/vehi...hoesale_eng.asp

This clearly shows the following:

The total number of vehicles *that are for private use* in the last 14 years (1993-2006) was 5.8 million.

That link is only showing new domestically produced cars sold per year. Those figures do no include imported new and 2nd hand cars. The figure of 14 million is likely correct.

[TopDogger]

Bangkok is arguably the richest/most well paid part of thailand, and to say 1 in 3 over 20yr olds in BKK have a car is quite simply rubish.

Edited May 5, 2007 by TopDogger

[paveet]

Bangkok is arguably the richest/most well paid part of thailand, and to say 1 in 3 over 20yr olds in BKK have a car is quite simply rubish.

It really depends which group of people you look at. For example, I am aware of someone who owns 24 cars in his household of 5. I am also aware of families who rely totally on the BTS.

But, I'd say it's definitely possible that 1 in 3 over 20 yr olds in BKK have a car.

[kalaminsa]

5'th in the world amongst countries surveyed....

12 countries were surveyed ..

http://www.thaipr.net/nc/readnews.aspx?new...79&sec=auto

Edited May 7, 2007 by kalaminsa

[Plus]

There was a story over the weekend about a disgruntled Toyota customer, a civil servant, she paid 650k in cash and took a one year finance plan that worked to a little over 11k per month.

Companies like Toyota Leasing spend at least two weeks verifying any new customer credit status. I suppose they aren't dumb and realise that chasing debts is less effective.

Other companies might not be so picky (or were not during the past boom years).

For the total number - second hand cars have been counted already when they were new, and imports are insignificant, less than 1%.

[chanchao]

BINGO:

http://www.thaiauto.or.th/Records/eng/vehi...hoesale_eng.asp

This clearly shows the following:

The total number of vehicles *that are for private use* in the last 14 years (1993-2006) was 5.8 million.

That link is only showing new domestically produced cars sold per year. Those figures do no include imported new and 2nd hand cars. The figure of 14 million is likely correct.

I don't read it that way; to me this seems the number of vehicles sold wholesale to dealers. Also the total number is consistent with what you see in the Bangkok Post monthly on total sold vehicles. (Across all brands, imported or not) Of course, the vast majority of vehicles are at least assembled in Thailand; very few are imported completely built up; for sure not enough to warrant a 7 million number to jump to 14. What you're saying implies that the same number of fully built up cars are sold as locally built/assembled.

[DP25]

I don't read it that way; to me this seems the number of vehicles sold wholesale to dealers. Also the total number is consistent with what you see in the Bangkok Post monthly on total sold vehicles. (Across all brands, imported or not) Of course, the vast majority of vehicles are at least assembled in Thailand; very few are imported completely built up; for sure not enough to warrant a 7 million number to jump to 14. What you're saying implies that the same number of fully built up cars are sold as locally built/assembled.

Well, I looked at the number of cars produced and exported and compared it with the sales figures and it appears you are correct. There were not enough cars produced in Thailand in 2006 to cover both domestic and export figures, ~50,000 of the cars in the domestics category must have been imports. If those are already accounted for then I am not sure where the 14 million figure comes from. Perhaps used imports could cover some of it, and might not be reflected in the stats we have, but apparently they have been illegal since the early 90s. The 14 million figure is either an error, or there are lots of very, very old cars out there.

[Plus]

Maybe they counted all cars ever registered in Thailand.

Perhaps arguing the exact number won't get us very far.

What is more important is that if they applied the same method across the board, so that if Thailand is at 31% and the US is at 91% the ratio is correct and Western countries have three times more cars per person than Thais.