Showrooms are sold out, wealthy people are scrambling to buy luxury cars for Tet.

Luxury car brands are incredibly busy at the end of the year, with showrooms seemingly overwhelmed by the surge in car purchase orders. The phenomenon of wealthy individuals with 3-5 billion VND in cash scrambling to buy luxury cars for the Lunar New Year holiday has led to many brands running out of stock.

In 2013, the automotive market faced difficulties, but luxury cars bucked the trend and experienced strong growth.

Mercedes-Benz sold 1,717 vehicles, an increase of over 70% compared to 2012, and accounted for 60% of the luxury car market share in Vietnam. Next was BMW, with a 20% increase compared to 2012, reaching 1,000 luxury cars sold. 2013 was also Audi's most successful year in its five years of operation in Vietnam, with nearly 600 vehicles sold, a growth of over 80% compared to 2012.

Luxury car brand Lexus has just opened its first dealership, and within 15 days, it has received 60 orders for 5 models: LS 460L, GS 350, ES 350, RX 350, and LX 570, with prices ranging from 2.6 billion to 5.7 billion VND.

Although the announced price is said to be much higher than that of previously unofficially imported vehicles, customers are still willing to pay, causing distributors to face a shortage of vehicles to deliver.

According to a representative from Euro Auto, sales of luxury cars increase rapidly towards the end of the year. For example, with BMW, sales in the fourth quarter of 2013 and January 2014 alone accounted for 40% of the total sales for the entire year.

Commenting on the Vietnamese luxury car market, Mr. Yoshihisa Maruta, General Director of Toyota Vietnam, said: "Although the average per capita income is lower than in Thailand and Indonesia, many people in Vietnam are still willing to buy luxury cars, therefore, we consider this a promising market."

According to data from the General Statistics Office, automobile imports in 2013 reached US$709 million with approximately 34,500 units of all types, an increase of 25.9% in volume and 15.2% in value.

Notably, while the number of luxury cars imported from countries like the UK, France, Germany, and the US is not large, the value is quite high, exceeding $100 million. This indicates that expensive car models are increasingly in demand in Vietnam.

The battle in the luxury car segment in 2014 promises to be extremely dramatic. The major players have officially "ignited" the long-term race.

After Lexus launched five new models at the end of 2013, Peugeot, the French automaker, introduced the luxury 408 to the Vietnamese market. At the beginning of 2014, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam also launched the S-Class... BMW and Audi announced that they would be introducing new models from their respective brands in 2014.

The competition in the luxury car segment will become more intense, with the addition of big names like Infiniti, Jaguar... and even ultra-luxury brands like Rolls-Royce and Bentley...

In addition to boosting sales, luxury car manufacturers are also focusing on building high-end after-sales services to attract wealthy customers. In 2013, BMW and Audi opened their second dealerships in Hanoi. Lexus and Mercedes-Benz invested tens of millions of dollars to develop their dealership networks.

All luxury car businesses recognize that today's high-end customers frequently experience a wide range of premium services, therefore they demand very high service quality, professionalism, time efficiency, and convenience.

According to forecasts, the Vietnamese luxury car market in 2014 will maintain an average growth rate of over 30%, with approximately 5,000 units sold.

According to Paul Carroll, Vice President of Lexus Asia Pacific, Vietnam may be a small market but has enormous potential. In the next 3-4 years, many opportunities will arise for Vietnamese people. Currently, the market size is only 100,000 vehicles, but it will reach 1-2 million in the near future. At that time, the number of luxury cars will increase many times over, and car manufacturers do not want to fall behind in gaining market share in Vietnam.

According to vietnamnet