Mr Andreas Klingler, General Director of Prestige Sports Car Co Ltd., shared his views on Vietnam’s imported car market.
How do you view the imported car market in Vietnam over the next six months based on the year’s first half sales figures?
I estimate that the second half of 2010 will be stronger than the first. The car industry had a poor January and February in terms of registrations due to the increase in value-added tax (VAT) and registration tax. For Porsche, with whom we are the sole distrubutor in Vietnam, the second half will be very good as we now have available the new Cayenne and the Panamera V6 models. Demand for both is overwhelming and Porsche has 12,000 customers around the world waiting for delivery of a Cayenne despite production running at 150 per cent of full capacity.
To contain inflation, imported cars have been placed on the restricted list of imported goods in 2010. How will this affect sales?
In general this restriction will have a negative impact on the entire car industry in Vietnam. But for Porsche the situation is slightly different. We are not a mass producer and selling approximately 50 cars per annum will have no impact on the country’s inflation rate. We are a luxury sports car manufacturer and we sell only to the elite, so therefore we do not foresee any negative impact.
What other difficulties could possibly face car importers in the future?
There many things that impact on the car industry in Vietnam. If taxes are reduced then more Vietnamese will be able to afford a car and the industry will sell more and this will create more jobs and a support industry can develop. Infrastructure and customs procedures also play important roles and can be more efficient than now.
What are Porsche’s business development strategies in Vietnam? What are its targets in 2010 and the years to come?
Our strategy is to provide our customers with excellent sales and after sales service. All Porsches official imported by us are produced based on the Vietnamese environment and road conditions. That means that during production in Germany the cars are labelled as being for Vietnam and receive upgraded parts in order to cope with the extreme temperatures and air and road conditions in the country. To achieve this was very important for us at the beginning when we started our business here in Vietnam.
We delivered 25 Porsches in 2008 and 40 in 2009. We are sure that we will sell more than 40 in 2010 and in a couple of years, after opening the Porsche Centre Hanoi, selling 100 cars per annum is not unrealistic.