Manual transmission cars are 'dying young' in Vietnam

From best-selling cars on the market to slow-selling models, the rate of manual transmission cars sold on the market is falling miserably, and many cases have had to quietly stop production.

The trend of using automatic transmission vehicles is increasingly popular in both Vietnam and the world thanks to its simplicity and convenience in operation, while fuel consumption is not significantly different from manual transmission vehicles.

Automatic transmission cars (left) dominate over manual transmission cars

Specifically, most new drivers and especially women choose to buy automatic transmission cars because they are easy to control and do not easily stall when driving at slow speeds (cornering, red lights, etc.) like manual transmission cars. Especially for those who have to travel on crowded streets regularly, automatic transmission cars bring significant convenience compared to manual transmission cars that require the use of a clutch pedal combined with a continuous gearbox.

Not only improved, automatic transmission cars, then continuously variable automatic transmission cars are increasingly smoother when automatically shifting gears instead of jerking like before, so accelerating and decelerating with automatic transmission cars brings superior comfort compared to before.

In terms of fuel consumption, thanks to increasingly advanced car technology, the gap in fuel consumption between manual and automatic transmission cars is getting lower and lower, even equivalent (for example, according to Honda's announcement, City 1.5 CVT and City 1.5 MT have the same fuel consumption of 5.8 liters/100 km on mixed roads according to the manufacturer's test).

In fact, sales figures from members of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) also clearly show the overwhelming trend of automatic transmission vehicles.

Civic forced to discontinue manual transmission

For example, in the C-class sedan segment, the best-selling model in the market is the Toyota Corolla with sales of 5,373 units in 2014, of which more than 84% are continuously variable automatic transmission vehicles, mainly the 1.8 CVT version (more than 3,500 units). For that reason, Toyota Vietnam's launch of the Corolla 2014 with the strongest change aimed at the 1.8 CVT version is considered a wise move to meet the needs of the largest customer group. In the first 6 months of 2015, the trend of using automatic Corolla is even more overwhelming, with 90% of the total 3,280 units sold being automatic, with the Corolla 1.8 CVT alone accounting for 2,518 units.

Another C-class car from Japan, the Honda Civic, had a modest sales of 546 units in 2014, of which 82% were automatic. In 2015, sales of this model were even worse, reaching only 192 units, and of these, nearly 94% were automatic. Only 12 manual Civics were sold in the first months of the year, leaving the Japanese auto joint venture with no choice but to stop production of this version.

With Ford Focus, despite modest sales of only 826 units in the whole of 2014 or plummeting to 277 units in the first half of 2015, the manufacturer only sells automatic versions, even though when it first came to Vietnam in 2012, this model still had a manual version.

In the B-class small car segment, the situation is similar, with automatic transmission cars being the top choice. Honda City sold 2,944 units in 2014 and 1,467 units in the first half of this year, but the proportion of CVT cars also accounted for 91 and 93% of the total number of cars sold, respectively. There is even information that Honda is considering stopping production of the manual City, similar to its big brother, the Civic.

The world's best-selling small car, the Fiesta, has had the opposite situation in Vietnam. In 2014, sales of this car model only reached 1,245 units and in the first 6 months of the year, only 356 units. In particular, the rate of manual transmission cars is so low that for the second time in history, after the 1.4-liter engine version when it first came to Vietnam, Ford quietly discontinued the manual transmission version of the Fiesta in early 2015.

Even with the top-selling small SUV model on the market, the EcoSport, the manual version is showing signs of following in the footsteps of the Fiesta. Launched in July last year with only the automatic version, and at the end of the year, there was a manual version, but perhaps this appearance was just for show. The proof is that the rate of manual EcoSport in 2014 was only 5%, in the first 6 months of 2015, the two versions produced simultaneously only reached a modest rate of 6.6%.

In addition to the above B and C segments, almost all D-class and luxury car segments are equipped with automatic and continuously variable transmissions, while in the SUV segment, the proportion of automatic transmission vehicles is also overwhelming.

Of course, in some specific car models, the rate of using automatic transmission is still modest. For example, with the best-selling multi-purpose vehicle on the market, the Toyota Innova, the rate of using manual transmission still accounts for 77% of the total of nearly 7,800 units sold in 2014 and in the first 6 months of the year is 86% of the total sales of more than 4,400 units. The large proportion of cars sold are used for taxi purposes is said to be the main reason why the rate of manual transmission cars of Innova is overwhelming, because taxi companies often choose manual transmission cars to save fuel to the maximum extent.

With the best-selling car model in the market belonging to VAMA, the rate of using automatic transmission cars reached 48% of the total sales of more than 6,200 cars sold in the first half of 2015, even though the rate of cars sold to taxi businesses (mainly buying manual transmission versions) is also not small.

According to VnMedia