Gear-motorbike market cutthroat for manufacturers
The gear motorbike market segment has become cramped with many models priced up to VND20 million.
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The Vietnamese motorbike market boomed in the first years of the 21st century, when gear motorbikes, which are simple and easy to drive, appeared. With Honda Wave Alpha and Yamaha Sirius, Japanese dislodged cheaper Chinese-made products from the market.
The Japanese products, which had reasonable prices and high quality, were highly popular.
Gear motorbikes are still the choice of many people, despite the strong rise of scooter models.
Honda Dream II and Suzuki Viva have become cheaper thanks to increased localization ratios.
Chinese products have left the market, but customers still have a high number of choices as Suzuki, SYM and Kymco sell models in Vietnam.
Other manufacturers are targeting the niche student market.
It is estimated that 20 gear motorbike models are available in Vietnam. Honda Wave Alpha/RSX, Yamaha Sirius, Honda Future/Super Dream, Yamaha Jupiter and Suzuki Viva are the best known brands.
There are also Taiwanese brands such as SYM Elegant/Angela 50/Galaxy and Kymco K-Pipe.
These are listed among low-cost gear motorbike models, priced at below VND16 million, which are not the direct rivals of Honda and Yamaha.
Though there are many warring brands, the market is controlled by Honda and Yamaha. Even Suzuki, which was once very famous in Vietnam, had to yield and stopped manufacturing Revo 110 and Viva 115 Fi because the models were uncompetitive.
Suzuki sold only 137 Suzuki Viva 115 Fis within six months before the decision was made.
This explains why the two Taiwanese manufacturers, believed to have weaker technology, have avoided direct confrontation with Honda and Yamaha.
Galaxy is the only model of SYM which has cylinder capacity of 115 cc, while its other models including Elegant and Angela only use 50 cc cylinder capacity and are priced below VND15 million.
Under current laws, users don’t have to obtain a driving license to drive a 50 cc motorbike.
As for Kymco, it focuses on K-pipe model which has high retail price but has a design that looks like a high-cylinder capacity product.
A report found that 439,000 Yamaha Sirius were sold in 2016. The figure was 368,500 for Honda Wave Alpha. The third position belonged to Wave RSX (227,000).
Despite the high price of around VND30 million, both Honda Future and Yamaha Jupiter had satisfactory sales, 118,500 and 40,000 products, respectively.
