Japan's Honda Motor expects its sales in Thailand in 2013 will be on par with this year, although overall industry sales will likely cool down as the government's first-time car buyer scheme ends.

Pitak Pruittisarikorn, an executive vice-president of Honda Automobile (Thailand), said sales are expected to be similar to this year at about 170,000 cars. The company sold 83,952 last year.

Meanwhile, total industry sales next year are expected to be 1.2 million vehicles, down from a projected 1.4 million, due to the expiration of the car scheme next week.

Domestic car sales rose by 76% this year from 794,081 units in 2011. A backlog of orders for about 500,000 cars will be delivered next year.

Mr. Pitak said Honda plans to increase its manufacturing capacity by 20% next year with an investment of 1 billion baht (US$ 32.8 million). The expansion will be completed in the first quarter.

Honda will also increase its service centres from 165 to more than 200 next year at a cost of 30 million baht each.

The company reported record-high monthly sales of 23,036 units last month, up from 21,265 in October. Sales were 150,748 units in the first 11 months.