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More luxury automakers come knocking
Impressed by the rapid growth rate, car manufacturers like Volkswagen and Audi have now entered the competition to “‘conquer”’ Vietnam’s market with luxury-priced automobiles, while Nissan has placed its bets on the domestic manufacture of a family sedan.
Volkswagen, which holds the largest market share in Europe, has officially set foot in Vietnam after selecting an authorized dealer. From now on, consumers will be able to purchase Volkswagen’s products through an official distributor instead of going through other importers.
The car manufacturer has also introduced its four latest models in Vietnam, providing maintenance services with manufacturer’s standards.
Purchase prices are high. The new Beetle, for example, has a price tag of 1.116 billion dong, the Passat 1.399 billion, a Tiguan SUV is 1.525 billion and the Touareg is 2.222 billion dong.
Another luxury automaker, Audi, has also announced the expansion of its distribution network to Hanoi. The Audi A4 2009 is priced at 1.494 billion dong.
Penetrating the market may not be easy, with super-high prices and consumers who are accustomed to other brand names like Toyota, Mercedes or BMW.
Achim Glogowski, senior executive of Volkswagen Asia-Pacific, hopes that a developing market will bring new opportunities. He remarked that consumers tend to seek new and differentiated products, which will bring many clients to Volkswagen.
With the market’s great potential in Vietnam, automobile manufacturers seem to believe that they will all get a slice of the pie. Nissan, the third largest automobile manufacturer in Japan, has announced the launch of a “made-in-Vietnam” model in early 2010 after a long period of importing to Vietnam.
Nissan has yet to release specific details on the model to be manufactured in Vietnam, except that it will be a family sedan.
Analysts have warned that Nissan may face difficulties with the sale of family sedans, since other automakers have the advantage in that car type.
However, Nissan still believes that Vietnam’s market has a lot of room for competition and can offer attractive opportunities for new companies who take the right steps. The rapid growth rate of market shows that the presently operational car assemblers alone will not be able to meet the increasing demand.
Nissan Vietnam’s Flemming Eltang observed that Vietnam is a strategic market with great potential and that they hope to obtain 5.5 percent of the market share in the next three years.
Achim of Volkswagen predicted that Vietnam’s automobile market will develop very rapidly and that he believes that his company needs to be present now to have a position in the market later.
Today car prices remain high because of taxes, which Vietnam must lower under WTO commitments and thus will make autos more affordable.
Phuoc Ha - Phan Hung
vietnamnet
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