Thai Yamaha Motor Co, the domestic distributor of Yamaha motorcycles, is shifting its focus this year to big bikes and sports models to boost its sales.
Chief of commerce Jintana Udomsub said the two segments are relatively strong because they target mainly middle-income earners.
"Prices in those segments are also more affordable now," she said.
Thai Yamaha introduced only two sports models last year, with sales amounting to about 3,400. It plans to launch six models this year, with sales expected to reach about 25,000.
Its market share in the sports segment is expected to rise to 14% this year from only 2% last year.
Most of Thai Yamaha's sports motorcycles are imported from its factories in Indonesia and Vietnam.
Thailand is forecast to sell about 180,000 sports motorbikes this year.
For big bikes, Thai Yamaha plans to launch three models with engines above 500cc. Yamaha sold 16,000 big bikes last year, with the figure expected to reach 20,000 this year. All big bikes are imported from Japan.
Thai Yamaha expects its overall sales to grow 22.4% this year to 270,000 motorcycles. It sold 220,549 last year, a decrease of 40.8% from 2013.
Its market share over the last four years has fallen from 24% in 2011 to 23% in 2012, 18.6% in 2013 and 13% last year.
It expects its market share will recover to 15.3% this year, driven by sales of sports models and big bikes.
Ms Jintana forecasts overall sales in the Thai motorcycle market will increase slightly by 3.1% this year to 1.75 million.
The market fell by 15% last year to 1.7 million motorcycles, marking the first time in three years in which domestic sales missed 2 million.
Motorcycle sales surpassed 2 million for the first time in 2011, hitting 2.01 million. Sales rose to 2.13 million in 2012 before dropping to 2.004 million in 2013.
Nobuhide Nagata, president of AP Honda Co, the Thai distributor of Honda motorcycles, earlier said it was unlikely that Thailand could post sales of more than 2 million units as the room for market growth was becoming limited.
Motorcycle ownership in Thailand is on a par with that in developed markets such as Taiwan and Japan.
In Thailand, motorcycle ownership averaged one for every 2.6 people in 2013 compared with one for every three people in 2012. In Taiwan, one in every 2.1 people has a motorbike.
AP Honda will continue to focus on the big-bike market for models with an engine above 400cc.
The company projects the overall big-bike market will grow 20% this year to 19,000 units.
