The Bangkok International Motor Show is Thailand’s biggest and most important car sales event. Held between 29-March to 11-April, sales figures at the motor show are often used as an indicator of the pulse of Thai car buyers, thus setting expectations for the rest of the year.

A total of 53,438 vehicles were sold (booked) during the two-week long event, according to figures released by the motor show organizer Grand Prix International.

As expected, Toyota leads the sales chart, with 8,540 bookings, or 16 percent of total bookings collected at the event.

The big news, however, is that BYD (5,345 bookings) has overtaken Honda (4,607 bookings).

Without a doubt, the reduced prices of the 2024 BYD Atto 3 helped, which is now 18% cheaper than last year’s model, with a bigger 50.25 kWh battery too.

The 2024 BYD Atto 3 now starts at 899,900 Baht (~RM 116.7k). That starting price means that the Atto 3 is now priced between a Honda WR-V and a Honda HR-V.

2023 models were also available, BYD was also giving cashbacks of up to 250,000 Baht (~RM 32k) discount for these old stocks.

Meanwhile, BYD Seal was put up with discounts of up to 126,000 Baht (~RM 16.5k).

At the motor show, BYD also opened bookings for the Seal U DM-i, the marque’s first plug-in hybrid model there. Early birds were given a 50,000 Baht discount (~RM 6.5k). Prices have yet to be announced but it is estimated to be around 1.6 to 1.8 million Baht (~RM 207k to RM 233k), which is the price range of a Honda CR-V e:HEV hybrid (1.589 million Baht to 1.729 million Baht).

Honda didn’t respond to BYD’s price cuts, and only communicated to customers low interest rate financing packages.

The price cuts and huge discounts are winning many new buyers but customers who had previously bought a BYD are not pleased with the impact on their car's resale value. Many expressed their dissatisfaction on BYD’s social media channels.