Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini have all launched top-end models over Covid period Bangkok billionaires purr through pandemic
Bangkok, Aug 10: As the Coronavirus brought the global economy to its knees, Thai businessman Yod decided to buy himself an $8,72,000 treat — a limegreen Lamborghini. Yod picked up the customised Huracan EVO supercar in Bangkok, a city of billionaires with a luxury economy unbroken by the crisis ripping through Thailand’s wider economy.
With tourism and exports in freefall,
Thailand’s growth could shrivel by as much as 10 percent this year, dumping millions into unemployment. But in a split-screen economy, there are plenty with immunity to the economic scourge caused by
Covid-19. Thailand is home to the ninth most billionaires anywhere, according to the China-based Hurun Report’s Global Rich List
2020. Among those with deep pockets is Yod — full name Thanakorn Mahanontharit — who was undeterred by Thailand's “crazy” supercar import taxes of up to 80 percent when he made his March purchase.
“This car makes me feel like David Beckham,” the genial Bangkok-based petro-chemicals businessman said. “When you open your door everyone looks at you like you’re a superstar.” Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini have all launched top-end models in Bangkok over the pandemic period, cars with price tags of between
$7,50,000 and $1.2 million. It is a bet on the wealth sloshing around Bangkok. Millions of dollars of that cash were on proud display in the capital last week as an eye-catching
40-car convoy from the Thailand Lamborghini Club cut through the city’s knotted traffic for a day trip to a nearby resort.
Lamborghinis “appeal to a very niche audience of high net-worth individuals”, said Matteo Ortenzi, chief executive for Automobili Lamborghini in the Asia-Pacific region. There has been “continued interest and demand (from Thailand), one of our most important markets in Southeast Asia,” he added. Yod said his supercar purchase was the completion of a lifelong dream. —