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Vietnam’s car market posted a 20.3% increase in vehicle sales in 2025, according to PwC’s car market report updated through March 2026—one of the strongest performances in ASEAN. By comparison, Indonesia fell 7.2%, Thailand was almost flat at -0.1%, and Malaysia rose only 0.2%.
PwC said the regional automotive market structure is shifting. For years, Thailand and Indonesia were viewed as the two largest ASEAN car hubs, but Vietnam is emerging as a new growth market. The report attributes Vietnam’s momentum primarily to electric vehicles and VinFast’s expansion, rather than a broad recovery across the sector.
PwC noted that VinFast alone contributed about 88,000 vehicles to Vietnam’s overall market growth in 2025. The figure is described as equivalent to the annual sales of many major brands in Vietnam in earlier periods. The company also rose in the ranking of the 15 brands with the highest sales in ASEAN-6, breaking into the top 5.
VinFast’s latest report states that in the first four months of the year it sold 78,458 vehicles.
What PwC highlighted as notable is that Vietnam’s growth driver is a domestic carmaker. The report contrasts this with the traditional ASEAN growth model, which has often depended on foreign joint ventures.
Thailand has long been described as the “Detroit of Asia” due to its manufacturing and export capacity for internal-combustion cars, while Indonesia has emerged as a production hub supported by its large population and resource advantages. However, both markets remain heavily dependent on Japanese OEMs.
In Vietnam, PwC said the market is being propelled by domestic electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and related ecosystems.
Experts cited by the report said Vietnam is entering a phase where per capita income supports car consumption more robustly. In 2025, Vietnam’s per capita GDP was about $5,026. The report notes that many automotive studies place the threshold for mass car-buying cycles at roughly $3,000–$5,000 per person.
Once income crosses that range, cars are no longer viewed only as assets for the high-income segment. The report compares this pattern to earlier mass automotive growth in China, and says Vietnam’s process is unfolding alongside highway infrastructure expansion, consumer credit growth, and lower-cost electric vehicles relative to traditional petrol cars in operating costs.
PwC said Indonesia’s car market declined 7.2% in 2025 due to weaker purchasing power, high borrowing costs, and macroeconomic pressures. Despite advantages in nickel and the battery supply chain, the report said Indonesia has not yet generated a scalable EV consumer push to offset stagnation in ICE vehicle demand.
Thailand saw almost no growth, reflecting challenges for the traditional ICE-based model and Japanese OEM dominance. PwC said the transition to EVs is progressing faster than expected, while the “old petrol advantage” is fading.
Chinese automakers including BYD, MG, and GWM have expanded their presence in Thailand over the past two years, increasing pressure on Japanese OEM market shares.
PwC said global automotive order flows are shifting in favor of Chinese players. It projects that the share of Chinese carmakers in Europe will exceed 4% in the near term. The report also states that the EU is importing more cars and components from China than it exports.
It added that the export-import gap between German and Chinese OEMs is expected to close in the near term, suggesting China is no longer acting only as a “cheap factory,” but has moved to a central position in global EV production and export.
PwC said the shift affects ASEAN, with Vietnam standing out as a market able to adapt more quickly to the EV trend. The report attributes this to Vietnam’s relatively small scale, a partially unstable market structure, and domestic-led enterprises.
PwC also said the industry no longer competes solely on product, increasingly relying on capabilities to manage supply chains, raw materials, and geopolitical positioning. Since 2025, global OEMs have shouldered at least $35 billion in tariff-related costs.
The report cited additional risk factors: 25% of global oil trades passing through the Hormuz Strait, 9% of global aluminum processing capacity located in the Middle East, and volatility in prices for lithium, cobalt, and nickel. These pressures, it said, are pushing automakers to restructure supply chains and reduce reliance on a single market, reinforcing the China+1 strategy.
Vietnam is described as a beneficiary due to proximity to China, competitive costs, and broad FTAs. More importantly, PwC said Vietnam is no longer seen only as a vehicle consumer market, but as starting to play a role in the regional EV value chain.
The report clarified that this does not mean Vietnam has replaced Thailand or Indonesia in the ASEAN automotive supply chain. It said Thailand and Indonesia still have significantly larger production and export scale, but Vietnam is becoming a new variable in the regional market—especially during the EV transition.
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