Motorbike sales drop in Q2
Motorbike sales drop in Q2
The number of motorbikes sold on the local market was 740,000 units in the second quarter of the year, dropping by over 4% year-on-year, which shows that the local market has likely reached its saturation point.
According to statistics released by the Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (VAMM), its five members---Honda Vietnam, Piaggio Vietnam, Suzuki Vietnam, SYM Vietnam and Yamaha Motor Vietnam---sell an average of 250,000 motorbikes per month, which means that some 8,300 units are purchased per day nationwide.
The sales excluded the number of exported motorbikes and those sold by other non-VAMM members such as Kymco, Ducati, Kawasaki and Harley Davidson.
VinFast is a non-VAMM member as well, so its sales of Klara smart electric bikes, which were launched on the local market in November last year, were not released.
In spite of being forecast to have reached its saturation point, the local motorbike market still has great potential for growth.
Speaking at a recent event, Keisuke Tsuruzono, president of VAMM and general director of Honda Vietnam, said that over three million motorbikes were sold in fiscal 2019 (from April 2018 to March 2019) in the country, up 2.7% year-on-year.
Among these, sales of Honda Vietnam increased by over 7% versus the fiscal 2018 figure to reach some 2.5 million units, accounting for 76% of the local market, and the remaining market share was owned by the other four VAMM members.
Gianluca Fiume, executive vice president of Piaggio Asia Pacific and chairman and general director of Piaggio Vietnam, told the local media that the number of high-end scooter users has been surging as the local economy is thriving and thus the local people’s average incomes are improving. The high-end scooter segment is expected to see strong sales in the coming period, he added.
Similarly, VAMM previously predicted that the local motorbike market has entered a saturation period, underlining a trend among the local people who are switching to using scooters. The scooter segment currently makes up 45% of the local market share and may see strong sales in the coming years as the average income per capita rises, according to VAMM.
Experts in the field also said that the motorbike is still a major mode of transport among the local people thanks to its economy and flexibility, particularly in urban areas where there are many alleyways that public vehicles find hard to access.
