Suttinee Poopaka, director-general of the Industrial Economics Office, said election candidates have changed their strategies for the general election to be held on July 3, where many have decided to use motorcycles instead of pick-up trucks to approach eligible voters, causing sales to increase significantly.
As billions of baht changes hands with the election slightly more than one month away, Vallop Tiasiri, president of the Thailand Automotive Institute, said he believed canvassers would not be reluctant to buy new motorcycles to use while campaigning for votes.
Vallop projected that this year’s motorcycle production in Thailand would be around two million units, up from 1.8 million units last year.
Production of motorcycles during the first four months this year totaled about 140,000 units, up from 130,000 units from the corresponding period of 2010, whiles sales rose approximately 12 percent to 150,000 units. Exports during the same period stood at 87,000 units.
Car production this year is expected to be about 1.8 million units, up from more than 900,000 last year, despite the slowdown in auto parts production in Japan due to the massive quake and tsunami which hit that country on March 11. (MCOT online news)
