The auto sales are increased in all segments. Sales of commercial vehicles continued to increase since the beginning of the year and ended at 37,611 units, going up 52.5 percent for the month, while sales of passenger vehicles hit record of 75.7 percent increased at 32,946 units, Wutthikorn Suriyachantananont, a senior assistant managing director at Toyota Motor told the news conference.

“The June data has been hitting a record high in ten years, thanks to the market turnaround in the passenger vehicle segment,” he commented.

Mr. Wutthikorn remarked that sales of the industry’s star product light pickup truck were doing well in all the regional markets, accounting for 31,327 units of the total commercial vehicle sale or up 46.7 percent for the month comparing to the same period a year ago.

More spending on luxury products is pushed by the country’s better political stabilization and consumer confidence.

Thailand’s total vehicle sales for the first half is marked at 356,692 units, hitting a record high for first half sales since 2005, which total year sale recorded at 703,432 units.

The country’s largest dealer of pre-owned Mercedes-Benz, Benz-Amornratchada, noted that sales also increased at the used car market, especially at the premium car segment, with the company’s half year sales recorded at 135 units.

The dealer hopes to sell more than 550 units of used Mercedes-Benz in 2010, or 9 percent sales increase.

Toyota assistant senior managing director Wutthikorn Suriyachantananont said in a statement that the market has been growing in every segment, pushed by the economic recovery and the pre-order sale during an automotive exhibition.

“There have been impacts from the political crisis, but fast market turnaround helped mitigated a sharp falling in demand,” he said.

Mr. Wutthikorn remarked that the automakers’ ramped up their production capacity has also created demand at both local and export markets.

Toyota reported the total vehicle sale for May 2010 was 62,205 units, or 5,077 units higher than April sale of 57,128 units.

The total auto sale from January through May period was 286,135 units, up 52.2 percent from the same period a year ago.

The company has revised up its forecast on auto sale for 2010 to be increased by 9.0 percent to 600 thousand units from its previously predict at 549 thousand units.

The association said the minimum tax of 17 percent that imposed on the Eco car project may not yet attractive in considering an impact from the E85 car project.

He said the E85 car project is impractical and may not attract buyers at the present due to insufficient service of E85 refueling stations and the country’s lack of ethanol supply.

“The manufacturers understood that the government wants to push up the usage of alternative fuel,” the news source said. “But that time may not come anytime soon. Therefore, we are going to urge the government to cut down excise tax imposed on other vehicles as well to establish a merit competition.”

He said the government should revise the existing car tax structure to persuade investment. Several carmakers are being doubted with the government unclear decision. It is hard to determine whether the Eco car project, the E80 car project, or the hybrid car project they should go with.

The company said its dry cell battery sale is expected to grow by double-digit at both the local and export market.

“Thai Storage Battery remains focusing on sport marketing strategy,” said Veeravat Khawpaibul, a company director.

Thai Storage Battery is a major sponsor of BEC-Tero Football Club, a top team in Thailand’s Premier League 2010, as well as numerous motor sport events in its attempt to build brand image among younger generations.

The company reported a total revenue of 1.14 billion baht in the first quarter, up 46.50 percent from the same period a year ago of 780 million baht.

The Federation of Thai Industry (FTI) expressed concerns that, with the fast growing rate, the industry will be running out cheap iron sheeting material, which currently imported under the Thai-Japanese economic agreement quota, throughout the second half of the year.

“We did not expect this fast growing rate at a negotiation table in Tokyo,” said Suparat Siriwannangkul, president for the industry. “However, we do not expect price to rise unreasonably by the manufacturers due to the market’s fierce competition.”

The FTI initially forecasted the country’s capacity of auto production at 1.4 million units for 2010, with regard of the current economic condition and political situation.

The federation has revised up the country’s auto production to 1.5 million to 1.6 million units, from full its capacity of 1.8 million units.

Sale at the domestic market is expected to top 650 thousand units this year and the export market is expected at 900 thousand units.

In the meantime, the federation’s spokesman for automotive industry, Surapong Paisitpatpong, reported the country’s auto export from January through April was 63 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

Shipments to the Southeast Asia market grew from 20 percent last year to 60 percent this year, while shipments to the EU climbed from six percent to eight percent.

The country’s total production of automotive from January through April 2010 was 487 thousand units, up 93 percent from the same period a previous year.

The campaign launches in response to Japanese aggressive invasion into the luxury car market territory.

BMW said prices cut comes from the excise tax privilege package which down to 25 percent from currently 30 percent for flex-fuel vehicle that run on the E80 and E85 ethanol.

BMW Thailand’s president Karl Rudiger said receiving the new tax privilege has enabled the carmaker to prices it 318i model as low as 2.229 million baht, while the 730Li was 500,000 baht cheaper than its competitors at 7.299 million baht.

“Flex-fuel vehicles allow us to expand market reach into our competitors’ niches,” Mr. Rudiger said—referring to Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, and Nissan Teana.

Around 60 percent of BMW vehicle fleet marketing in the kingdom annually is the diesel engine version. The automaker expects to shift a portion more to the gas engine version in the future.

BMW reported it sold 400 vehicles during the first two months of the year, or up more than double from the same period a year ago.

Mr. Rudiger predicts that the company’s annual sale would increase in double digit for 2010.

For the motor show exhibition in Bangna, BMW plans to launch a trade-in package that would offer its customer as much as 350 thousand baht for vehicle with market value of at least 400 thousand baht.

More attractive package would be interest-free campaign for 60 months installment payment period.

BMW Thailand president Michael Kordis said the carmaker officially pulls the plug on all after sale service programs for BMW and Mini vehicles it programs to officially roll out in the future.

Mr. Kordis said those vehicles that imported from the Europe countries are design to run on Euro-5 standard fuels, but most of the fuels in Thailand are only Euro-3 standard.

He said Thailand’s lower standard in fuel may cause serious damages to BMW vehicles’ engine.

The prestige carmaker has established links between its maintenance shops around the world to collect vehicles data which are entering into service program. For example, a car made for an England market would received maintenance service in England rather than in Thailand.

BMW said the mandate sets to protect the company brand name and its customers.

“Vehicles that are sold in Thailand should have been engineered for the Thai market only, which is different from vehicles that are engineered for the England market in both climate and fuel aspects,” Mr. Kordis said.

MBW sold 2,356 vehicles in Thailand for 2009, up 26 percent or up 5.0 percent in market share from a year ago. It is the only brand which seen sale growth in the premium car segment.