In the first half of 2022, the situation of insufficient supply and Euro5 emission standards caused many models to increase in price; a series of new cars were launched, while some were ceased.

No longer suffering from Covid-19, the Vietnamese auto market experienced the first half of 2022 with more positive signals. Market sales increased thanks to the recovery of purchasing power, but this could be even higher if supply is not as scarce as in the first 6 months of the year.

Besides the shortage of goods taking place on a large scale, the market also witnessed a series of manufacturers increasing the selling price of their products for many reasons. Many models were discontinued because of low sales, making way for new names to appear for the first time.

Demand outweighs supply

Sales of the entire Vietnamese car market, including the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), Hyundai Thanh Cong, and VinFast reached 252,932 vehicles after the first 6 months of 2022, up by 26% over the same period in 2021. That’s equivalent to each minute, a new car finds its owner.

However, according to experts, the number of nearly 253,000 vehicles mentioned above in fact does not reflect the market demand due to the shortage of goods on a large scale. Many popular, high-end, assembled or imported car models have had a situation of having to postpone months due to difficulties in supply from domestic and foreign factories.

The reason is that the global supply chain has not recovered from the pandemic. In addition, there is a shortage of components and semiconductors used to produce electronic equipment and technology in cars.

At times, customers who buy popular models of Toyota, Hyundai, Kia … had to wait 2-3 months to receive their car. With the luxury car segment, mainly imported products, the waiting time is even longer, for example 3-6 months as in the case of Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Land Rover…

Series of price increase

Price spikes are normal in the auto industry, but mass events like the first half of 2022 are uncommon. Many firms have adjusted the car sales price by from a few million to hundreds of millions of VND.

By the end of June, the list of automakers that increased car prices included Kia, Ford, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Toyota, Lexus, and Mercedes. The reason comes from the companies’ business policy; engines are upgraded to meet Euro5 emission standards, and the price of components and input accessories increased due to heightened logistics costs.

Specifically, in the mass segment, Kia increased the prices of K3, Sonet, and Seltos, their most popular models. Toyota adjusted almost entire its product range; Suzuki increased the price of XL7, Ertiga, and Ciaz; Mitsubishi also increased the price of Triton pickup trucks, recently adding Pajero Sport, Attrage; Ford’s Ranger and Everest models also increased in price.

With the high-end car segment, Lexus also increased the price by tens of millions of VND on the ES, GX, RX, LM models. German automaker Mercedes increased the selling price of GLC, GLE, GLB, GLS, A 35, GT lines with an adjustment of VND 17-170 million.

New cars warming up the market

In the first half of 2022, many new car models will meet Vietnamese customers to make the market more exciting. Among these, in addition to the upgraded or new generation models, there are also many models sold for the first time in Vietnam.

From the beginning of the year, Honda launched the new generation Civic, then Ford introduced the new Explorer imported from the U.S. Vietnamese customers have more choices when Kia K3 2022, Ram TRX 1500 later appeared.

Toyota brought new ambitions in the MPV segment when it introduced the new Avanza and Veloz at the end of March. Before that, the company also refreshed the Altis and switched to importing from Thailand instead of domestic assembly. Suzuki introduces slight upgrades of Ertiga, XL7. Hyundai first introduced the B-size CUV, the Creta.

The newly launched series of cars also have names like MG5, Volkswagen T-cross, Polo Sport Edition, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Honda HR-V, Kia Sportage, Mitsubishi Xpander, Lexus NX, LX, Porsche Macan, Mercedes C- class…

Discontinuation of models

Aside from many newly launched products, various models have withdrawn from the Vietnamese market or were stopped selling. In the cases of Ford EcoSport and Toyota Rush, the cause of discontinuation was low sales and the need for a new, more market-oriented replacement product. As for Hyundai Kona, the assembly and distribution unit (Thanh Cong) did not specifically state so, but the appearance of Creta in the B-sized CUV group greatly limited the chance for Kona to sell again.

Some models do not meet Euro5 emission standards and are temporarily discontinued, such as Toyota Hilux, Wigo, and Honda Brio. Meanwhile, the orientation to switch to fully electric vehicle production from 2023 seals the fate of VinFast gas-based models such as Fadil, Lux A2.0, SA2.0 to stoppage in Vietnam.

Source: vnexpress.net