Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The luxurious carmarket is expected to develop strongly this year, despite the automobileindustry facing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing automakers tosuspend or reduce production.

Insiders said that many Vietnamese people aremoving from ordinary cars to luxurious cars. When upgrading, it will bedifficult for them to return to using lower priced models. This is also thereason why many automobile firms have focused on domestic production whilestill importing luxurious cars.

The Vietnamese market has currently convergedmost hi-end car brands, such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Lexus, Maserati,Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Ferrari. Mercedes-Benz isthe only one manufacturing and assembling autos and importing luxurious cars,others are all imported.

Director of Thien Phuc An Company Nguyen Tuan,who for many years imported cars, said the Vietnamese economy is stablydeveloping with increased average income. The middle class has risen and theautomobile market growth was consistently higher than the previous year.

“The trend of consumers shifting to use moreexpensive cars is the key reason for luxurious brands "landing" inthe Vietnamese market,” Tuan said.

In 2019, although it was forecast that themarket would face many difficulties, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam still consumed morethan 6,800 units, an increase of 8 per cent compared to 2018. This German brandhas always held the leading position in the luxurious car market in recentyears thanks its local assembly of various auto models, creating a priceadvantage over imported cars.

As for Lexus, which is imported by Toyota MotorVietnam, more than 1,500 units were sold in 2019, up 157 per cent year-on-year.Meanwhile, Trường Hải Automobile Group (Thaco) did not disclose its sales ofBMWs but the figure was estimated to be about 1,000 cars last year. Otherbrands participating in the Vietnamese market, such as Audi and Jaguar LandRover, did not disclose sales figures, but reported they saw good growth.

Thaco, which focused on assembling cars like Kiaand Mazda, has co-operated with Germany’s BMW Group Asia since 2018 to becomean official importer of BMW and Mini models in the Vietnamese market. Aftertaking over the brand, Thaco imported the first batch of BMW vehicles withprice per unit between 49 million - 600 million VND (2,100 - 25,600 USD) lowerthat of the old distributor.

In order to expand the market share for thisluxurious German brand, a Thaco representative said the firm planned to open 15large-scale BMW agents in HCM City, Hanoi and some other big cities in Vietnamthis year. It has also set up plans to manufacture and assemble cars in thefuture. 

After Mercedes-Benz Vietnam launched six newmodels last month, Thaco last week introduced 10 BMW models in the 3-Series,7-Series, X1, X5 and X6 ranges. Thaco is also the first enterprise in Vietnamto launch new cars online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing period.

Insiders said that if the two brands fromGermany continue to perform in the near future, Thaco has a ‘habit’ of monthlyprice incentives, so they will put a lot of pressure on other brands, whichbenefits consumers.

Vinh Nam, an expert in the field of luxuriouscars from AVIS Vietnam, said that Thaco’s launch of BMW models is a good signaldespite the COVID-19 outbreak, increasing competitiveness with Mercedes-Benzand Audi in the Vietnamese market.

“However, the limitation of BMW is that it is importedand subject to high taxes, so its competition with domestically assembled carsof Mercedes-Benz is relatively fierce at this time,” Nam said.

Nam said Audi Vietnam has recently launched itsQ3 model and is preparing to introduce some new models, so the luxurious carmarket will heat up.

“Consumers will have many choices whilecompanies must strive to gain market share.”/.