Following the disaster in Japan, Honda Motor in Thailand has had to stop taking orders for their new Brio eco-car, which had been released at the Bangkok International Motor Show this month. Back orders for the Brio are already around 5,000, but Honda has said they will refund the money to those who don’t want to wait. The other Honda models can still be delivered, though slower than normal.
Toyota is also slowing down their build rate at their three plants to around 30 percent of their usual output particularly for any of their hybrid models (Prius and Camry) as parts for the hybrid engineering are not manufactured here, but are Japan imports.
Nissan is again the winner, with currently no back-log on orders for their March eco-car. However, Nissan admits that by July, the situation might be different, as parts will be running low by that time.
The Thai Automotive Dealers Association is still buoyant as far as the yearly figures will be concerned, but it will certainly depend upon how quickly Japan gets back to production.
