Small sedan under 650 million VND attracts Vietnamese customers

Design and operation that "suits" Vietnamese tastes, along with continuous price reductions, help models in the B-class small sedan segment in Vietnam increasingly attract customers.

B-class sedan, one of the segments that is quite popular with Vietnamese people.

While sales of small SUVs, D-class sedans or MPVs... are continuously declining, small B-class sedans in Vietnam are still maintaining impressive growth. Models such as Toyota Vios, Honda City, Mitsubishi Attrage or Chevrolet Aveo... which have been selling well, now with new designs and reduced prices, are becoming even more attractive.

According to sales figures from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), by the end of the first 8 months of 2017, B-class sedans were the fastest growing passenger car segment in the automobile market. Of the 47,260 sedans sold in Vietnam in the first 8 months of 2017, B-class compact sedans accounted for more than half.

Toyota Vios is still dominating the B-class sedan segment in Vietnam with sales in the first 8 months of 2017 reaching 13,324 vehicles, an increase of more than 4,000 vehicles compared to the same period in 2016 (reaching 9,221 vehicles). The peak in June 2017, when Toyota dealers applied a preferential program of up to 80 million VND, the number of vehicles sold of this model reached a record 2,681 vehicles. If in the first 8 months of 2016, Toyota Vios sales reached an average of about 1,152 vehicles/month, in 2017 this number reached 1,665 vehicles/month.

Toyota Vios's competitor, Honda City, has also attracted consumers. After showing signs of "losing steam" in the pursuit of Toyota Vios, in mid-June 2017, Honda suddenly launched an upgraded version of City with 2 versions, City 1.5 AT and City 1.5 TOP, priced from 568 - 604 million VND.

This move by Honda has contributed to the City's rapid growth. With valuable upgrades in design, features, etc., by the end of August 2017, Honda City's sales reached 4,509 vehicles, an increase of 1,376 vehicles compared to the first 8 months of 2016, while continuing to maintain its competitiveness with Toyota Vios.

Not assembled domestically like Toyota Vios and Honda City, the Attrage model was imported by Mitsubishi from Thailand and distributed in Vietnam with a listed price of 462 - 542 million VND, achieving sales of more than 1,000 cars in the first 8 months of 2017. In addition to Japanese models, other names such as Chevrolet Aveo, KIA Rio... also maintained sales growth. Figures from VAMA show that GM Vietnam sold 1,043 Chevrolet Aveo cars in the first 8 months of 2017, an increase of 178 cars compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, sales of KIA Rio reached 1,608 cars, Mazda2 reached 1,328 cars and Nissan Sunny reached 519 cars.

In addition to the design style that meets a variety of purposes as well as many different customer groups. The factor that helps B-class sedans still attract Vietnamese customers is the selling price that is suitable for the majority of car consumers in Vietnam.

Currently, the selling price of B-class sedans in Vietnam is around 462 - 650 million VND, however, most of these models are applied monthly incentives by manufacturers and dealers. Therefore, in reality, the selling price of some B-class sedans when they are sold at dealers... are tens of millions of VND lower than the listed price of the company. Not far away, in the past 3 months, the selling price of Toyota Vios at dealers is lower than the price announced by Toyota VN by 50 - 60 million VND depending on the version, when applying the registration fee reduction program equivalent to 10% of the value of the car. The price of Mitsubishi Attrage is also reduced by 30 - 40 million VND compared to the listed price. Similar reductions are also applied by Chevrolet dealers for the Aveo model...

Adding up the cost of insurance, license plates, registration, etc., the on-road price of many B-class sedans in Vietnam is currently only around 550 - 740 million VND. This number is quite suitable for first-time car buyers or those who buy cars to start a taxi service business, which is booming in big cities.

In addition to the selling price, the B-class sedan segment in Vietnam currently has many models for consumers to choose from. In the context of an increasingly competitive market, manufacturers are constantly innovating designs, upgrading technology, features, improving fuel economy... on each model to achieve sales efficiency towards increasing market share in the segment. This contributes to making sedans increasingly attractive to consumers compared to other segments in the market.

According to TNO