Luxury cars still sell well
Luxury car traders are still upbeat about the local market as their sales are still growing well regardless of the economic woes and higher vehicle registration fees.
Tran Tan Trung, general director of Lien A International Co., the official dealer of Audi in Vietnam, said though the auto market declined sharply in the first quarter, Audi car sales still continued the growth trend. Particularly, the sales volume of Audi cars in the first three months picked up 15 percent against the same period last year, said Trung at the launching ceremony of Audi A5 Sportback in HCM City on Monday.
Such a growth rate fails to meet the company’s target, but Trung deemed it satisfactory given the general downtrend of the market.
As the auto sales volume of this brand in 2011 surged 65 percent against 2010, Laurent Genet, general director of Audi Vietnam, the official Audi importer in Vietnam, said his company targeted a double-digit growth rate in 2012.
In particular, Lien A aims to sell 500-600 vehicles this year, versus nearly 400 units sold last year. Trung expressed high confidence in achieving such a goal, based on the stable sales growth of Audi car models A6, A8, Q5 and Q7 in Vietnam.
The auto trader expects to introduce three more Audi lines to the domestic market this year.
“We have studied which segments are attractive to local consumers. Launching the Audi A5 Sportback model is one of our strategies to boost sales,” said Trung.
Lien A sets a modest target to sell only 100 units of the new A5 Sportback line in 2012.
Sharing the optimistic view, Andreas Klingler, general director of Porsche Vietnam, the importer of luxury Porsche cars in the domestic market, said the company recorded positive business result every year, although the sales volumes were small. In 2011, for example, the consumption volume of Porsche doubled from the year before.
Despite the current tough time, the company still aims for higher sales than last year. Klingler hoped luxury Porsche cars will continue to sell well as Vietnamese people are getting wealthier.
Porsche Vietnam is finalising a showroom in Hanoi to expand its business to the northern region.
Similarly, euro Auto, the official importer of BMW vehicles in Vietnam, said the company achieved a growth of over 20 percent in the first quarter. The auto dealer plans to maintain this growth rate until the year’s end.
The sales volume of euro Auto last year is 10 percent higher than 2010, but the company declined to reveal the specific figure.
Several luxury car traders said the troubled economy did not impact rich people, who depend little on bank loans when purchasing cars.
Though this market segment is growing well, luxury car importers said the local market is still small, with modest sales volume of hundreds to thousands of units a year for each luxury car brand.
Audi Vietnam and Lien A International Co. on Monday organised a launching ceremony for Audi A5 Sportback at a retail price starting from VND2.275 billion, with unlimited-mileage two years warranty. With a length over 4.7 meters, Audi A5 Sportback has 15 different body colors to choose from.
The luxury vehicle is equipped with 2.0 TFSI engine, delivering 155 kW (211 hp) of power, consuming 7 litres of fuel on every 100 kilometers of travel and emitting 159 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.
Category: Business
