AUTO INDUSTRY
Vehicle sales drop 7.5% in 2007
Vehicle sales in 2007 totalled 631,250 units, down 7.5 per cent year on year from the previous year due mainly to the 9 per cent contraction in pick-up trucks and 11.3 per cent drop in passenger cars.
Tri Petch Isuzu Sales, which compiled the data, attributed the drop to high energy prices, higher inflation, more stringent hire-purchase loan conditions, as well as political uncertainties.
Showing the annualised increase in sales last year are special purpose vehicles, 15.90 per cent; and trucks weighing 2 tonnes or more, 0.66 per cent.
At the end of the year, Toyota's market share is 44.69 per cent with the sale of 282,088 units, Isuzu's 23.93 per cent, and Honda's 9.27 per cent.
- The Nation