HANOI: Vietnamese people bought more than 24,400 cars in June, an increase of 31 per cent compared with the same period last year, the Việt Nam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said. Passenger cars were the market leaders with sales of 12,916 units, following by commercial cars with 10,325 units and special-purpose vehicles with 1,180 units. In the first half of this year, nearly 126,800 cars were sold, a 31 per cent year-on-year increase. On average, about 700 cars were bought each day.
Trường Hải Automobile Joint-Stock Company (Thaco) continued to monopolise the market last month, with sales of 9,246 units, claiming 42.3 per cent of the market share. Thaco said it produced 51,000 cars in the first half of this year and developed 11 new models of buses, tour cars and trucks.
Thaco plans to design a new bus under the national brand later this year as a Vietnamese brand promotion strategy in the ASEAN Economic Community and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Two truck and bus manufacturing plants will be built later this year, with a capacity of producing 16,000 buses and 100,000 trucks per year, while the production capacity of the Kia Thaco plant will be raised from 28,000 to 30,000 cars, and of Vina Mazda to 30,000 vehicles.
Thaco’s sales were more than double of Toyota Motor Việt Nam (TMV), which ranked second with sales of 3,979 units, claiming 18.2 per cent of the market share. These were followed by Ford Việt Nam, Honda, GM Việt Nam and Mercedes-Benz Việt Nam with sales of 2,369 units, 869 units, 765 units and 655 units, respectively.
The top five best-selling cars in the first half of this year were Ford Ranger, Toyota Vios, Toyota Fortuner and Toyota Innova, besides Mazda. The market prices of many models with engine displacement between 1,500cc and 2,500cc were sharply cut. TMV cut the price of Corrola Altis models by VNĐ48-59 million (US$2,147-2,600) each, with the prices now ranging from VNĐ747 million to VNĐ933 million. Other Toyota models the prices of which were cut were Yaris, Vios and Hiace. Meanwhile, the firm raised the prices of Fortuner models by between VNĐ32 million and VNĐ38 million to reach VNĐ1.04 billion and VNĐ1.23 billion. The price of Land Cruiser VX increased by VNĐ870 million to touch VNĐ3.72 billion.
A small survey conducted by online newspaper Vietnamnet.vn showed that agents cut the prices of many models in the sedan segment. An auto sales person in Hà Nội, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the prices of models with engine displacement of 1,500cc to 2,500cc had been reduced. The agent did not make any profit, but still accepted the low price to close its revenue account for the first half of this year. Meanwhile, a representative of an FDI auto firm said the price cut was being implemented only by agents. They accepted cut in profits to increase revenue and hoped to receive a cash bonus from the automakers.
Agents said they had to reduce the prices of many models because there was fierce competition among companies to claim and maintain market shares. Some businesses have announced price cuts. Meanwhile, some others do not cut the price themselves, but give the ‘green light’ to agents to cut prices, while promising to give them cash bonuses in return for increased revenue.
