Hanoi (VNA) - Members of the Vietnam Association of MotorcycleManufacturers (VAMM) witnessed sales of more than 749,500 units in the secondquarter of this year, marking a decrease of 4.4 percent from the sameperiod last year.

Thefigures were recently released by VAMM, which has five members: HondaVietnam, Yamaha Motor Vietnam, Suzuki Vietnam, Piaggio Vietnam and SYM Vietnam.

VAMMmembers offer a wide range of products from domestic assembly to imports,including manual motorbikes, scooters and motorbikes with high enginedisplacement. Each product has several versions priced from 18 million VND (772USD) to 1.2 billion VND, depending on the model and brand.

The rangeensures domestic consumers have ample options when looking to buy a motorbike.

The VAMMsales figures do not represent the total sales of the domestic marketbecause they do not include other imported brand names that are notmembers of the association such as Kymco, Ducati, Kawasaki, BMW, KTM,Benelli, Harley Davidson, Triumph, Royal Enfield and Motorrad.

TheVietnamese motorcycle market also has the newly launched VinFast brand with twoversions of its Klara electric motorbike going on sale from November 20 lastyear. VinFast is not a member of VAMM.

Accordingto insiders, the market is considered to very saturated but stillhas potential. The association's reduced second quarter sales numberscould be due to the increased participation of non-member brands in the market.

Speakingat a recent conference reviewing motorbike sales in Hanoi, President of VAMMKeisuke Tsuruzono said that in the 2019 fiscal year (from April 2018 to March2019), there were 3.37 million vehicles sold, an increase of 2.7 percentcompared to the previous fiscal year.

Sales ofHonda Vietnam reached 2.56 million vehicles, up 7.6 percent compared to fiscalyear 2018 and accounting for 76.8 percent of the total.

HondaVietnam successfully opened its first Honda Moto store in HCM City this yearand has expanded to other provinces and cities. It has also introduced 18models of motorcycles and new versions of motorbikes with larger engines tosatisfy domestic consumers.

In therecent meeting, Chairman and General Director of Piaggio Vietnam cum ExecutiveVice President of Asia Pacific Gianluca Fiume told local media that thecompany’s business result revealed double-digit growth in sales. Thebiggest contribution came from the Piaggio Medley and the high-endVespa GTS.

Accordingto Fiume the Vietnamese motorbike market has clearly polarised intoseparate affordable and high-end segments. Many people now see theirvehicles are more than just a means of transportation; scooters showthe class of the vehicle and the owner.

Vietnam’seconomy has been rapidly developing, improving incomes and leading to increasedsales of high-end scooters.

In thefuture, the high-end segment is likely to grow faster than the restof the motorbike market. This is why, 10 years ago, Piaggio set atarget to turn Piaggio Vietnam into the main production and trade centrein the Asia-Pacific region to serve Vietnamese consumers and exportmarkets.-VNA