CARS24 Exits Thailand: Due to Economic Cycle Instability and the Impact of Electric Cars

April 25, 2024, CARS24 announced the closure of all branches nationwide, indicating that it is for returning to the main strategic focus of the company, but it will continue to sell existing cars in Thailand until the stock is used up.

The registration date of Cars24 Group (Thailand) Company Limited is April 2, 2021, with a registered capital of 920,339,700 baht. The business type is selling used cars, such as private cars, pickup trucks, trucks, and similar small vehicles.

When it first started operations in Thailand, CARS24 executives said that as a unicorn automotive technology startup from Singapore, it can leverage its own advantages for stable development in Thailand because it can provide customers with high-quality services such as freedom to choose test drive time. It's confident because it created rapid growth in the Indian market in just  trois years before expanding its business to Thailand.

However, the actual operating conditions were not as good as people and company managers expected. In 2022-2023, CARS24's cumulative loss was 2.241 billion baht.

In 2022, the total revenue was 487.86 million baht, and the loss was 1.301 billion baht.

In 2023, the total revenue was 1.7047 billion baht, and the loss was 940,05 million baht.

This situation is not entirely due to the company's operations and services, but more due to the impact of the entire used car market. The Thai used car market has experienced huge turbulence in the past. With the development of the economy and the leaning of electric vehicle policies, it has seriously hit the used car market.

The economic downturn has reduced consumer purchasing power, and at the same time, the cars of bad loan debtors due to overdue confiscation have flowed into the used car market, leading to an increase in the number of used cars available for sale, and the competition in the used car market has intensified. On April 25, 2024, FTI Vice Chairman Suraphong Paisitpattanaphong revealed that in March 2024, Thailand's auto production was 138,331 units, a year-on-year decrease of 23.08%, due to the weak consumer side of auto consumption, Thailand's auto sales volume was 46523 units, a decrease of 41.01% from the same period last year.

Electric vehicle enterprises attract customers through promotional activities, the frequent price reductions have made the price of some new cars not much different from used cars, which has affected the attractiveness of used cars to consumers. At the same time, the Thai government attaches great importance to the development of national electric vehicles, and policy orientation directs consumers to invest in electric vehicles.

On January 3, 2024, the National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee (EV Board) meeting chaired by Mr. Srettha Thavisin continued to work to make Thailand an important regional center for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing and closely related policies. Thailand hopes that by 2030, the output of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) will account for at least 30% of the total output of motor vehicles, that is, 725,000 cars and 675,000 motorcycles.