VIetNamNet Bridge - More foreign motorbike manufacturers flock to Vietnam. The driving license policy has been loosened. Vietnamese now have more opportunities to possess large capacity motorbikes.

New policy stimulates the demand

Instead of restricting the subjects who can attend the exams for A2-grade driving licenses (applied to big capacity motorbikes), the Ministry of Transport has decided to allow more subjects to possess and drive the motorbikes in the newly released Circular No. 38/2013.

In fact, the movement of driving large capacity motorbikes began several years ago already, while the number of people who want to obtain A2 driving licenses has been increasingly high.

Before the Circular No. 38 was issued, only the people serving in the Ministry of Public Security, army, market management taskforce, forest rangers, or sportsmen could attend exams for this kind of license. However, with the new regulations, there would be no more barrier for people to drive big motorcycles.

Analysts have commented that the transport ministry’s decision can be seen as a good medicine that stimulates the market demand for large capacity motorbikes.

Large capacity motorbikes are understood as the ones with the cylinder capacity of 175 cubic meters and higher.

Time for large capacity motorbike market boom

A lot of the world’s well-known motorbike manufacturers have flocked to Vietnam in recent years. More big names would arrive in Vietnam in the time to come, once they realize that the demand increases as the result of the new driving license policy and the new habit of Vietnamese.

In December 2009, Ducati became the first European large capacity motorbike manufacturer landing in Vietnam. After three years, the manufacturer decided to expand its business scale in Hanoi, because, as Ducati’s General Director Bradley Lalonde said, the Vietnamese market was not as small as thought.

Ducati, which soon realized the great potentials in Asia, decided to set up an assembling factory in Thailand to take full advantage of the regional free trade agreements. Diavel model, which is imported from Thailand, for example, is $12,000 cheaper than the product imported from Europe.

Ducati has revealed that it can get the two-digit growth rate annually in Vietnam. This has prompted the manufacturer to look for more retail premises for the new showroom in HCM City and plan to launch two new models next year.

In the immediate time, it would market Ducati Monster 795, Diavel, Multistrada or Hypermotard next month.

In August 2013, KTM, the Austrian manufacturer, officially chose a distributor in Vietnam. It plans to set up showrooms both in Hanoi and HCM City.

In an effort to compete with the rivals, KTM has introduced 8 models at the same time for different market segments, from high class Duke 125 to 1190 RC8 which has the cylinder capacity of 1190 cc, 173 horsepower, which is nearly equal to a medium size car.

Analysts believe that Suzuki, Kawasaki or Benelli, the other big names in the world, are also eyeing the Vietnamese market as they have seen their colleagues making fat profit there. Vietnam imports some 1,000 products every year, just 1/10 of the total number of large capacity motorbikes sold every year in Thailand. Therefore, the manufacturers believe they have great opportunities in Vietnam.

Tri Thuc Tre