South Korea’s MBI Group heats up competition in Vietnam electric scooter market

South Korean bike maker MBI Group on December 18 signed a contract with its Vietnam’s partner DKBike to launch three models of electric scooters in the country by the end of next February, heating up competition in this market, local media reported.

The average capacity of an electric scooter in Vietnam’s market is 50cc, while those of MBI would be in the range of 110cc – 125cc, stated Yoo Moon Soo, MBI’s chairman, at a press conference on December 18. 



MBI plans to establish 500 charging and battery leasing stations nationwide by the end of July 2019. The figure would later be increased to 15,000 in 2020 with total investment capital of over US$1 billion. 



The Korean company targets its market share in the first year of launching its products at 3% or 100,000 units per year, and over 5% in subsequent years (200,000 units per year). 



In Vietnam, around 3.4 million gasoline-fueled scooters are sold annually. Honda now claims the largest market share with 75%, followed by Yamaha with 20%, and Suzuki, Kawasaki, Piaggio, SYM for a combined share of 5%. 



All of those motorcycle makers have not launched any electric vehicles in Vietnam. 



In early November, VinFast, the automobile subsidiary of Vietnam’s largest privately-run conglomerate Vingroup, introduced its first electric scooter named Klara to Vietnam’s market.