Kickin’ the Tires, Slammin’ the Doors and Lookin’ at the Pretties The annual Bangkok International Motor Show aka BIMS at IMPACT Challenger Hall 3 Muang Thong Thani celebrated its 40th anniversary March 25 – April 7. This years theme “Enjoyment of Automobiles” The SET-listed automotive exhibition organised by Grand Prix International GPI is the biggest in South East Asia. 2019 show included 33 car brands and 14 motorcycle brands from American, British, Chinese, French, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Swedish and Thai manufactures. Displaying their automotive products at innovative booths and large pavilions with lounges in the enormous 60,000 sqm Challenger Hall. One of this years highlights was Aston Martin’s Valkyrie a limited production hybrid electric sports car collaboratively built by British automobile manufacturer Aston Martin (James Bond 007 rapid transportation).
At the swank BMW pavilion the massive all-new black X7 SUV, (the biggest in the X series) the sleek Z4 roadster and the new 3 Series. Opposite the German arch-rival Mercedes-Benz showed off the ueber luxurious S 560 e plugin hybrid. Plus an array of C-class, E-class, SUV’s and AMG’s as well. EV’s or electric vehicles were presented. However, no TESLA! AUDI’s e-tron a full electric luxury SUV priced at a cool 5 million THB. From the British Jaguar marque the IPace: 5.499 million THB.
Both manufacturers claim a range 400 kilometers on a single full charge. The Japanese giants Honda and Toyota will be competing in the hybrid sedan market with the Accord and Camry sedans both priced under 2 million THB. Among the pickup trucks the macho Ford Ranger Raptor attracted many visitors. “BIMS” Bangkok International Motor Show is also a Sales Event, par excellence.
Visitors this year 1.6 million many of them orders, totally 37,769 units. GPI said Toyota had the highest number of orders 6,110 cars. Mazda second 5,211 orders while Honda was ranked third with 3,019. In the premium and super premium car segment, orders were placed for totally 5,055 Mercedes-Benz (2,405) and BMW (1,569) MINI (194) Volvo (274) Lexus (115) Lamborghini (10) and Rolls-Royce (6).
“Sport-utility vehicles represented 30% of the total car orders while the other segments were sedans, hatchbacks and double-cab pickups,” GPI chief operating officer Jaturont Komolmis said on Monday. Motorcycle orders reached 5,343 units. Honda received the most orders 1,274. Yamaha came second with 723 units and Kawasaki was third with 539 motorcycles.
There are AUTO/MOTOR SHOWS in Detroit, Frankfurt, Geneva and Tokyo. In Thailand always at the end of March beginning April: Bangkok International Motor Show. Happy Birthday – 40th Anniversary! “Buckle Up! Helmet On! Safe Driving & Riding”
