|
Auto market thirsty for small cars
The automobile market has been going the way policymarkers wanted when they compiled the current tax policies. Small-size cars have been selling well, MPVs have recovered, while the sale of luxury models has been stable.
The market has witnessed considerable changes since the luxury tax law came into effect and the car ownership registration fee was slashed by 50 percent in HCM City and Hanoi.
Market thirsty for small-size cars
Sales of five-seaters with cylinder capacities of less than 2.0L have jumped. Buyers have to book cars and get deliveries late as output cannot meet demand.
Toyota Vietnam, for example, has sold nearly 800 Corolla Altis, nearly 50 percent of its total sales, so far this month.
The manufacturer said that the number of ordered cars is double its production capacity. Customers who order Altis 1.8 right now will not get their cars until the end of September. Meanwhile, those who want an Altis 2.0 will have to wait five months.
Deputy General Director of Thaco-Kia Bui Kim Kha also said that its small-size models like New Morning and Cerato have been selling very well. The company has delivered 300 cars so far this month, while it is now trying to fulfill the other 500 orders.
Kha said that more and more people are looking to buy small cars because the tax has been slashed most sharply on these models.
MPV sales have recovered
1,485 MPVs were sold in May 2009. The figure proved to be small if compared with the record sold number of 4,562 cars in March, but it was good news if noting that only 925 cars were sold in April.
According to Pham Anh Tuan, Secretary of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA), the 50 percent decrease in ownership registration tax is the main factor that has made the demand for MPVs recover, though the prices of these models are not as ‘soft’ as those of small-size models.
However, one should not expect that the sales of the models will reach the levels seen before.
Sales of luxury models stable
While many manufacturers have complained about sales decreases, Mercedes Vietnam still has seen impressive sales. In the first five months of the year, the manufacturer sold 1,259 cars, up by 40 percent over the same period of last year. Of this amount, nearly 500 C200 and C230 were sold. Mercedes Vietnam’s sales show that the actual demand for luxury cars has never decreased.
Not only domestically-assembled cars, imported products with high prices, have also been selling well. Euro Auto, an importer and seller of BMW 320i 2009 series, has got more than 100 orders in the last one month since it marketed the model.
VietNamNet,VnMedia
|
