Thailand Car Ownership Potential

The data below suggests that at 90% US level the upper for car ownership in any area then there is a potential for a tripling of ownership in Thailand or an addition of 28 million more cars. Think Thailand could handle it?


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

Why exclude Japan from the survey??? Is it because they own all the cars!!!

"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,"

I feel sure that this is in error and should read "Thailand ranks fifth in Asia"

People love cars and as soon as they have enough money they get one or more un less there is political control as in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Browsing through the CIA I note that GDP per capita for countries seem to follow car ownership.

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/fa ... index.html (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html) Taiwan is not included?

These are informed estimates for 2006 in US$

USA 43,500
Ireland 43,600

Thailand 9,100
Korea S 24,200
Japan 33,100
China 7,600
India 3,700
Cambodia 2600
Laos 2,100
Burma 1800

Figures alone don't reveal the whole story. In Singapore, I believe there are severe taxes on car ownership. People probably perceive lower need for a vehicle in city "states" like Hong Kong and Singapore. The availability of alternatives such as trains and taxis probably tell a story. In my own family our rural agricultural cousins were car owners decades before the city dwellers for obvious reasons.