Super-scooter selling like hot cakes despite price storms

Despite the economic difficulties, the super-scooter market in Vietnam remains hot with more and more new luxury models launched onto the market and the increasing purchasing power of consumers.

143 million dong was the sale price of the Piaggio Beverly that Piaggio Vietnam imported and launched onto the market last week. In fact, the sale price of luxury scooters is nearly the same with the price of a medium class car. However, the despite the high prices luxury scooters still have been selling like hot cakes.

“The clients that we target are high income earners. These can be the clients who have cars already, but still want to own motorbikes,” said Costantino Sambuy, General Director of Piaggio Vietnam. It is clear that it would be much easier to drive on motorbikes in the inner city with heavy traffic.

143 million dong, equal to $7000, is a fortune for low and medium income earners. However, this is a mediocre sum of money for high income earners. Especially, analysts say $7000 is not too high if compared with other scooter models, like Honda Spacy 125 or Dyland SH, which are much more expensive.

Prior to that, in June 2009, Piaggio Vietnam launched Vespa LX125 at 60 million dong, a relatively high price level in comparison with the average prices on the market. However, the model still sold very well. In 2009, Piaggio Vietnam sold 22,300 products, about 3500-4000 products a month.

In 2010, the motorbike manufacturer plans to churn out 50,000 scooters from its factory in Vietnam and sell 72,000 products, including both products assembled in Vietnam and imported cars in order to diversify the products. Costantino Sambuy told Dau tu newspaper two weeks before the end of 2010 that the manufacturer fulfills all the business targets set earlier this year.

Alongside Piaggio Vietnam other motorbike manufacturers are also trying to introduce luxury models to attract wealthy customers. Honda Vietnam, for example, introduced Honda SH 125 and Honda SH 150 with the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of nearly 100 million dong and 121 million dong, respectively.

The market of super-scooters for high income earners has witnessed the emergence of a giant from Italia - Ducati. After opening the first showroom in HCM City, Dong Duong Company, the official distributor of Ducati decided to march towards the north, introducing models at prices $15,000 and $70,000 in Hanoi.

The managers of Dong Duong also said that they do not target popular clients, but target high income earners who purchase luxury scooters for their collection or just for fun

The returning of the luxury products to Vietnamese market was marked by the opening of the Kawasaki showroom run by Phuong Mai Company in HCM City and Hanoi.

Right after that, the Vulcan 900 Custom, with a sale price of $17,000 receive a large number of orders, along with Boss 174cc and KSR 112 cc.

Besides, the motorbikes with the cylinder capacity of 400-18,000 cc with the sale prices of $20,000-52,000, imported under the mode of complete built units, have also been available at Ravo Motor Showroom in Hanoi.

With attractive names like Honda Shadow 750cc, Honda CB400 Hyper Vtec Revo, Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail, Suzuki GSR600, Triumph America, Ravo Motor is the paradise of motorbike players. The clients of the showroom are mainly the members of the Hanoi Motorbike Club and sports motorbike fans.

According to the General Department of Customs, in 2009, 115,000 motorbikes worth $132 million were imported to Vietnam. By December 15, 2010, 92,654 CBU motorbikes had been imported.