South Korea’s Hyundai dominated Vietnam’s small urban car market last year after Vietnamese and Japanese manufacturers stopped selling A-segment models.
The European Commission defines the A-segment as city cars, the smallest category of passenger cars.
Last year in Vietnam, Hyundai sold 10,752 units of its i10 model, while local Vietnamese manufacturer VinFast sold 10,661 Fadils, its most popular model.
The Fadil was Vietnam’s best-selling car in 2021. And it was 2022’s best-selling car through the first half of the year as well, before VinFast took it off the market in mid-July as part of the company’s transition towards manufacturing only electric vehicles. VinFast no longer makes fossil-fuel cars.
The 2022 car market in Vietnam also saw Kia sell 3,979 of its Morning models, while 1,953 Honda Brios and 488 Toyota Wigos were also sold in the country.
The two Japanese models on the list, Brio and Wigo, were also taken off the market in the second half of last year because their engines did not meet the Euro 5 emission standards required by the Vietnamese government.
Brio had been on the Vietnamese market for more than 3 years, but the model hadn’t changed since a facelift in 2020. It is scheduled to go on sale in Vietnam again later this year.
VinFast plans to replace the Fadil with a small electric CUV model called the VF 5. It will cost VND458 million ($19,407), excluding the battery, and deliveries will begin in April.
Imported Japanese models such as Wigo and Brio have a brand advantage, but their prices are higher than South Korean models assembled in Vietnam.
In the A-segment, customers are often interested in low initial investment costs and various new version options. Both the Hyundai i10 and Kia Morning meet both of those expectations.