Hanoi (VNA) – The motorbike market of Vietnam has recorded positivegrowth in recent years, despite being forecast to enter a saturation period bythe Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (VAMM) two years ago.

Five VAMM members – namely Piaggio Vietnam, Suzuki Vietnam,SYM Vietnam, Yamaha Motor Vietnam, and Honda Vietnam – have reported sales thisyear higher than those of the previous year.

The total number of motorbikes sold by these companies rosefrom over 2.8 million in 2015 to over 3.1 million in 2016, and to nearly 3.3million in 2017.

According to a recent report of the VAMM, its members sold783,940 motorbikes of all kinds in the second quarter of 2018, up 6.1 percentagainst the same period last year, raising the total number in the first halfof this year to nearly 1.6 million.

However, the number excluded those of such foreign brandnames as Ducati, Kawasaki, KTM, Beneli, Harley Davidson, Triumph, and Royal Enfield.

Experts predicted that motorcycle sales would exceed 3.3million this year, as the second half of the year is an ideal time formanufactures to boost their sales, especially during the new academic year, andahead of the New Year holiday.

Sales of automatic motorbikes are also forecast to increasein the future as people’s income increases. This kind of product now accountsfor 45 percent of the market share.

Gianluca Fiume, Executive Vice President of Piaggio Group AsiaPacific and Chairman and General Manager of Piaggio Vietnam, said that theeconomic growth and rise in the average income of locals are encouraging thetrend of more high-end automatic motorbikes.

This segment in particular is expected to enjoy a highergrowth rate than the motorcycle market’s general growth.

This is the reason why the Piaggio Group set a target tobuild Piaggio Vietnam to become a main commercial and manufacturing centre inthe Asia-Pacific region 10 years ago, he added.

Along with the general motorbike market, the large-displacementmotorcycle market in Vietnam has become hotter in recent times as severalgiants – such as Suzuki, Thaco, and Honda – are focusing on distributing thiskind of motorcycle.

After succeeding with small-displacement motorcycles, Suzukiis moving to the over 300cc motorcycle segment to bring this potential market intofull play.

Meanwhile, after becoming a distributor of the BMW brand inVietnam earlier this year, Thaco brought the first batch of BMW Motorradmotorcycles to Vietnam to meet consumers’ demand.

Honda Vietnam, which used to manufacture normal andautomatic motorbikes and automobiles, also encroached on the large-displacementmotorcycle market in May by launching its first large-displacement motorcycleshowroom in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.

Toshio Kuwahara, General Director of Honda Vietnam, saidthat Ho Chi Minh City was chosen as it is Vietnam’s largest economic hub.

After the city, Honda will expand the business to Hanoi andsome other localities, he added.

Besides Suzuki, Thaco, and Honda Vietnam, Vietnam’slarge-displacement motorcycle market has also seen the presence of big namesfrom the US and the EU.

At Vietnam AutoExpo 2018 held in Hanoi in early June, the fourgiants Harley-Davidson, Ducati, Triumph, and Royal Enfield brought their newproducts to the expo to carry out a customer survey. -VNA