Vietnam’s motorbike market bucks saturation forecasts

In the first six months this year, the top five popular brands in the country sold almost 1.6 million motorbikes, the Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (VAMM) reports.

This is a growth of 4 percent over the same period last year, said VAMM, which represents Honda, Piaggio, Suzuki, SYM and Yamaha in Vietnam.

Motorbike consumption in the first half this year was 12 times that of cars, which went down two percent year-on-year, it added

Honda remained the largest player in the motorbike market, accounting for 72.5 percent of 3.28 million motorbikes sold by VAMM members from April last year to March this year, the company informed a conference in May.

Although semi-automatic motorbikes are still dominant, Vietnamese are showing greater inclination towards scooters. Last year, 48 percent of motorbikes sold in the country were scooters, a three percent increase from 2016, the VAMM report said.

It said companies have also been producing more sports bikes as they discern greater interest in them from increasing numbers of young Vietnamese men.

The motorbike market in Vietnam is still growing because people have a demand for this type of transport. High taxes and infrastructure limitations are constraints for cars, VAMM said.

“Although the market will not see remarkable changes in the future, it will continue to grow steadily with 3-3.5 million motorbikes sold each year,” VAMM said.

Last year, a study done by Germany-based Dalia Research found that Vietnam ranked top in the world for having with highest number of people using motorbikes for daily transportation.

Seventy-nine percent of Vietnamese use motorbikes for commuting, while the number is just 10 percent globally, the study found.

By the end of 2016, there were 45 million registered motorbikes in Vietnam, a country of over 92 million people, according to the Ministry of Transport.