While domestic cars are still competing to reduce prices, a small car model of Suzuki produced in Thailand is about to enter Vietnam with a very cheap price, starting from only 299 million VND, making the car market even more exciting.

Toyota Wigo is about to be sold in Vietnam. Photo: Internet

A few months ago, when the new Suzuki Celerio model was just revealed, there was information that this small car in the Vietnamese market would cost about 400 million VND for the automatic version and about 380 million VND for the manual version.

However, according to the disclosure of some dealers,Suzuki carIn Hanoi, the official selling price for the low-cost Celerio model is even more attractive, expected to be 299 million VND for the manual version and 340 million VND for the automatic version.

Thus, compared to two "big" competitors in the Vietnamese automobile market, Kia Morning and Hyundai Grand i10, the selling price of Suzuki Celerio is much lower.

With a price of 299 million VND, the price of the Suzuki Celerio manual transmission is only 4 million VND higher than the Kia Morning MT 1.0 version (currently 295 million VND), and 16 million VND lower than its competitor, the Hyundai Grand i10 (the 1.0 Base MT version is currently priced at 315 million VND).

As for the automatic transmission version, with a price of 340 million VND, the price of Celerio is 54 million VND cheaper than the high-end AT 1.25L version of Kia Morning (currently 394 million VND).

It is known that Suzuki Celerio will reach customers in March 2018, instead of January 2018 as previously predicted.

Suzuki Vietnam will import the 2017 Suzuki Celerio from Thailand. This is a 5-door hatchback with technical specifications quite similar to competitors in the low-cost mini car segment in Vietnam such as Kia Morning or Hyundai Grand i10. Suzuki Vietnam said that the company expects the Celerio to "liven up" the small car segment in the near future.

Cheap small car segment fierce competition

The A-class small car segment is witnessing fierce competition between two brands from Korea. Photo: Internet

Currently, small cars in Vietnam are receiving many preferential tax policies. From January 1, 2017, import tax in the ASEAN region decreased from 40% to 30%, causing the price of small cars to decrease in reality by 5-7%. From 2018, this tax rate will be reduced to 0%, at which time, the price of small cars will certainly decrease further.

In the Vietnamese market, the A-class small car segment is a fierce competition between two Korean brands, Kia Morning and Hyundai Grand i10. These two models will be formidable rivals of Suzuki Celerio.

Suzuki Celerio's biggest competitor in the Vietnamese market today is Kia Morning, which has just launched the most premium sports version, Morning GT-Line (also known as Kia Picanto 2018) in the Middle East market with a very attractive price, starting from only 240 million VND.

In Vietnam, the Kia Morning line has just added the most advanced version. The Kia Morning S 2017 is equipped with additional airbags and a rear camera, with not many changes in design. The Kia Morning S AT 2017 has a selling price of 394 million VND, and will be reduced to 390 million from January 1, 2018 due to preferential special consumption tax for cars under 2.0L.

The new retail price of the Hyundai Grand i10 model has been reduced by 20-40 million VND compared to before, in order to compete with the Kia Morning. This reduction is applied to all Grand i10 models currently assembled domestically, including sedan (4-door) and hatchback (5-door) models as well as engine capacities of 1.0L and 1.2L.

With this discount, the selling price of 9 versions of Grand i10 in Vietnam is at 315-415 million VND (including VAT). This price is for 2018 but is effective from the time of announcement.

One competitor that Suzuki Celerio must also be wary of in the Vietnamese market is the small car Toyota Wigo from fellow Japanese car manufacturer.

Toyota Wigo, also known as Toyota Agya, is a small urban car manufactured in Indonesia.

After a market survey at VMS 2017, Toyota plans to officially sell this model in Vietnam from 2018. However, the price of Toyota Wigo in the Vietnamese market has not been announced yet. In Indonesia, the price ranges from 131.5-152 million Rupiah, equivalent to 224-259 million VND. If the difference between taxes between Vietnam and Indonesia is about 100 million VND, this model will be officially sold at a price of about 350-400 million VND.

Thus, when appearing in Vietnam, Suzuki Celerio has to face formidable opponents such as Hyundai Grand i10, Kia Morning or Toyota Wigo. The appearance of Suzuki Celerio promises a dramatic race in the A-class car segment, where Hyundai Grand i10 and Kia Morning have dominated for many years.

According to Vietnamnet