BANGKOK, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) on Friday said it still remains optimistic about the country's car production hitting 2 million units this year despite the September output dropping for the first time in 15 months.

Surapong Paisitpatanapong, the club's spokesman, said September output fell by 3.7 percent year-on-year to 183,191 vehicles.

"The year-on-year contraction was because production for exports of both passenger cars and pickups dropped by 6.2 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively, to 35,287 and 64,017 units," Surapong said, "but production for the domestic market rose 11 percent to 83,887 vehicles in September."

Surapong said he still believes that 2018 production can reach 2.08 million units as projected in June.

The country's automotive output exceeded 2 million units in both 2012 and 2013, with 2.45 million and 2.46 million, respectively.

The increase was due to the incentive propelled by the Yingluck Shinawatra government's first-time car buyer scheme.

However when the scheme expired, output dropped to 1.88 million vehicles in 2014.

For car exports, volume in September fell by 13.7 percent year-on-year to 104,163 units as shipments to many regions contracted.

Export value for the period was 54.4 billion baht, down 14.6 percent from the same month last year.

Exports over the first nine months stood at 858,787 units, up 1 percent, and value for the period totalled 450.9 billion baht, up 0.3 percent.

Surapong however, also expressed concern that car export from Thailand would be affected by external factors from other countries.

"For example, Europe market is shifting to buy and import vehicles from Turkey because import duty coming from Turkey is lower than coming from Thailand."

Surapong said that vehicle export outlook still remains rosy and is maintaining its export projection for 2018 of 1.1 million vehicles, down 3.4 percent from the 1.139 million shipped in 2017.

In the domestic market, sales in September rose by 14.3 percent to 88,668 units, driven by healthy sentiment in the country.

Surapong contributed to the domestic rise in sales to the overall GDP growth.

"High consumer confidence, introduction of new cars, investment by the government and private sector, the tourism industry's potential and a healthy export sector," said Surapong," positive momentum drove the overall car market from January to September, as sales rose 20.3 percent to 746,546 vehicles in the period. "

The FTI report indicated sales of pickup trucks in the period rose by 20 percent to 314,688 units, followed by passenger cars with a 19 percent rise to 291,091 units.

SUV sales in the first nine months totalled 60,575 units, up 58.5 percent, while sales of pickup passenger vehicles stood at 45,811 units, up 11.9 percent.

Motorcycle sales output from January to September stood at 1.93 million units, up 1.6 percent from the same period last year.

Local sales in the first nine months totalled 1.37 million motorcycles, up 1.7 percent.