Nearly 400,000 cars were sold in the Vietnamese market in 2019 thanks to valuable gift and discount programmes, which were launched at the beginning of the year, said the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA).

A corner of Hyundai service centre of TC Motor in Hanoi (Source: VNA)

Of the figure, more than 320,300 units were sold by VAMA members, marking a year-on-year increase of 12 percent. The other nearly 80,000 units came from TC Motors.

VAMA said that the above sales did not fully reflect the overall figures for the automobile market, because there was also the presence of Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes- Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, Volvo and Vietnamese automaker VinFast.

To achieve the above sales, businesses offered promotions, incentives, discounted car sales and valuable accessories for car buyers.

Toyota Motors Vietnam offers up to 100 million VND (4,300 USD) for customers buying Corolla Altis, Vios, Innova and Fortuner cars. VinFast also offers a discount of 100 million VND to buyers of Trailblazer SUVs.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi reduced prices by up to 91 million VND and presented gifts to customers who bought Attrage, Mirage, Outlander, Pajero Sport and Triton models. Mazda Vietnam also cut all its models by 100 million VND.

Insiders said Viet Nam’s automobile market in 2020 would maintain a growth rate of 10-20 percent thanks to the current abundant supply of cars.

Pham Van Dung, CEO of Ford Vietnam, said businesses would continue to launch promotional programmes to stimulate consumption as well as introduce new cars to meet demand.

Dung said the demand for cars was increasing. Many people would want to buy new cars, not only to be safer on the road but also to experience new models.

According to a forecast by Viet Dragon Securities Corporation (VDSC), the Vietnam automobile industry has many opportunities to develop in the future.

The VDSC statement was based on three factors supporting the development of the retail automobile market.

The first one is rising incomes, which in turns leads to higher demand for cars. This is forecast to continue, as the country’s GDP is forecast to be 7 percent per year in 2021-2030.

The second factor is based on strong development infrastructure, while the last factor is that the rate of car owners in Vietnam is still much lower than that of Southeast Asia.