Recently, on a Thursday morning, the showroom of Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD in Hanoi, Vietnam, was deserted. However, a few kilometers away, the dealership of the Vietnamese emerging electric car manufacturer VinFast Auto Ltd. was bustling with people, as potential customers flocked to purchase their new car models.
On a typical day, VinFast salesman Tran Trung Hieu, dressed in a black suit and tie, told Bloomberg, “We receive an average of 20 customers per day. On weekends, this number may double or even triple.”
According to a report by Bloomberg on March 2nd, Roland Berger, a global consulting company, partner Ron Zheng said that there are about 5 million cars on the roads of Southeast Asia, while there are approximately 250 million motorcycles, making it a much more complex market compared to China.
Based on data from the industry association Gaikindo, electric car sales in Indonesia were only 43,188 units last year, accounting for only a small fraction of the total sales of about 860,000 passenger cars.
“Perhaps the affluent are more familiar with electric cars, but ordinary people are not.” A school teacher in Jakarta, Hairayani, told Bloomberg, “There are also factors like price and the additional hassle of finding charging stations.” Hairayani mentioned that she does not plan to give up her fuel-powered car in the short term.
In Thailand, buyers can benefit from a government subsidy of 100,000 Thai Baht ($3,000) per car. In 2024, electric car sales decreased by 9.3% to 66,732 units, falling short of the Thailand Electric Vehicle Association’s target of 80,000 units. Thailand has the highest household debt levels in Southeast Asia, and many consumers are facing stricter bank loan approvals.
Data from the Thailand Board of Trade shows that the situation did not improve in January this year, with battery-powered electric car sales declining by nearly 8% year-on-year.
In places where local companies like VinFast in Vietnam have strong capabilities, the situation is even more challenging for Chinese electric car manufacturers. BYD entered the Vietnamese market in July 2024.
Vietnam’s VinFast, with its expanding proprietary charging network and an entry-level mini electric car priced at around $11,700, easily outsells its Chinese competitors. Last year, of the nearly 91,500 electric cars sold in Vietnam, over 87,000 were VinFast models. However, many of these sales were to related parties of VinFast, especially the country’s largest taxi service company Green and Smart Mobility JSC, of which 95% is owned by VinFast founder Pham Nhat Vuong.
Ongoing tensions between the Vietnamese and Beijing governments have also contributed to people’s reluctance to purchase Chinese cars, reflecting in the sentiments of the locals.
“People owning a Chinese electric car in Vietnam is not practical,” said 41-year-old Hanoi resident Thinh Hanh to Bloomberg as he and his brother visited the VinFast showroom to look for the VF 6 model. “There is a lack of suitable charging stations for Chinese cars,” he added.
Moreover, the historical tensions between the Vietnamese government and the Beijing government have also led to people being reluctant to buy Chinese cars in the country.