Thailand’s September Car Production Falls 6.08% as Floods Disrupt Plants

Economic Warfare & Trade Policy › Industrial policy

Photo: iMoD Official, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (file photo of BYD’s plant in Rayong, Thailand).

Thailand’s car production fell 6.08% from a year earlier in September 2026 to 120,319 units, the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) said on Thursday, Oct. 29, according to The Straits Times. The decline in Thailand car production followed a 10.93% rise in August and came as floods disrupted factories.

Where Thailand car production fell and rose

Output of passenger cars with internal combustion engines dropped 27.78% from a year earlier, while production of electric vehicles rose 55.20%, the Bangkok Post reported, citing the FTI. Thailand, often called the “Detroit of Asia,” has drawn heavy investment from Chinese EV makers in recent years, including BYD’s plant in Rayong.

Domestic sales rose 14.28% in September, led by electric vehicles, and exports rose 4.55%, the FTI said. FTI spokesman Surapong Paisitpattanapong presented the figures, according to the Bangkok Post.

By the numbers: the September drop

The FTI did not state September 2025 output in the release cited by The Straits Times. Based on the 6.08% decline, The Boston Report calculates that about 128,108 cars were built in September 2025, meaning about 7,800 fewer vehicles came off production lines this September.

For January through September, Thailand built 1.08 million vehicles, up 0.39% from the same period of 2025. The FTI kept its full-year production target at 1.45 million units, which it had cut from 1.5 million in July, The Straits Times reported. Meeting the target would require roughly 370,000 units in the last three months, or about 123,000 a month, close to September’s pace.

Floods hit carmakers

Flooding in Thailand this autumn has killed at least 80 people and disrupted operations at Toyota, Isuzu, Ford, Nissan and Honda, according to news reports compiled by Yahoo Finance.

Why it matters

The auto industry is one of Thailand’s largest manufacturing employers and a major exporter, shipping vehicles across Asia, Australia and the Middle East. The shift from combustion-engine cars to EVs is reshaping the supply chain, with Chinese brands gaining share at the expense of Japanese makers that have dominated the country for decades.

Thailand’s economy is forecast to grow 2.1% in 2026, the slowest among the region’s large economies, according to IMF projections. The government is also trying to cut household energy costs through a new rooftop solar subsidy program, which we cover on our Southeast Asia news hub.

Background: the “Detroit of Asia” in transition

Thailand became Southeast Asia’s main car-making hub over decades of investment by Japanese firms, led by Toyota, Isuzu, Honda and Nissan, and by Ford and others. Pickup trucks are a particular specialty, and Thailand is one of the world’s largest producers of one-ton pickups for export. Production peaked at about 2.45 million vehicles in 2013, according to FTI data, well above this year’s 1.45 million target.

Since 2022, the government has offered subsidies and tax cuts to EV makers that agree to build cars locally. Chinese companies including BYD, Great Wall Motor, Changan and GAC’s Aion have opened or announced plants, mostly in the Eastern Economic Corridor around Rayong and Chonburi. BYD’s Rayong factory, pictured above, opened in 2024. Under the government’s EV 3.5 incentive scheme, carmakers that import electric vehicles with state subsidies must later build matching numbers in Thailand, a requirement that has pushed Chinese brands to ramp up local output.

The industry has also struggled with high household debt, which has led banks to tighten auto lending and weighed on domestic sales of pickups. September’s domestic sales rise, led by EVs, came after a long period of weak local demand.

The FTI publishes monthly production, sales and export data. October figures, due in late November, will show whether factories recovered from the floods. Elsewhere in Thailand’s economy, the government’s new People’s Solar program is covered on our hub.

Related coverage: Thailand’s People’s Solar subsidy program. Philippine peso hits a record low. Find all of our regional reporting, plus country facts and official resources, on the Southeast Asia news hub.

Sources

• The Straits Times: Thailand’s September car production drops 6.08% on year
• Bangkok Post: September car output and EV growth
• Federation of Thai Industries

Additional sources

• Yahoo Finance: Thailand floods and automakers