Best Selling Cars – Matt's blog

Chery QQ in Yangon, Myanmar

* See the Full photo album by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Ryusuke *

Information about the Myanmar new car market is slowly but surely trickling down, and now thanks to the hard work of Ryusuke I can share with you a photo album of the streets of the capital Yangon. As detailed in one of my previous Myanmar updates, with the government now selling import licenses to vehicle owners that turn over their junkers for smelting, new cars are now starting to be more frequent in the streets.

Toyota Carina in Yangon, Myanmar

And Ryusuke’s photos confirm the Chery QQ is now a very common sights in Yangon, mainly as a taxi. As you know if you are a regular reader of BestSellingCarsBlog, QQ owners can easily rent the cars for K15,000 (US$17) a day to taxi drivers… An interesting motivation to want to own a car!

Street scene in Yangon, Myanmar

Now there are still many well travelled Toyota Corolla, Camry and Probox station wagons in the streets. But as far as new cars are concerned, we can start to notice the Toyota Yaris, Honda Jazz, Toyota Alphard and Honda Civic finding their way, as well as the Kia Bongo pick-up…

Previous Myanmar posts:

Myanmar: One of the Top 10 ‘Emerging engines of growth’

Myanmar 2012: Chery QQ3 the new favourite

Myanmar: More information needed.

Full photo album below.

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Suzuki could start assembling cars in Myanmar in 2015

One week ago, I started a series called ‘the Top 10 emerging engines of growth’ as nominated by Business Monitor International and I started with Iraq. Myanmar is another one of these high potential markets. If you are a regular reader of BSCB you will know that Chery has started selling its QQ minicar to great success in the country. Business Monitor International  added that most of the sales growth potential in Myanmar should be fuelled by companies assembling locally as there is still a 165% tax on import models. Suzuki is investigating the possibility of replicating its success in India and Sri Lanka in Myanmar and could start assembling cars there in 2015, as well as Hyundai in the longer-term.

Check out more on the BMI website below.

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The Chery QQ3 could be the 2nd Chinese model to rank #1 in an export market

* Many thanks to Myk for digging out this information! *

Up until now I had found it very hard to find even a little bit of information on the new car market in Myanmar, simply because local laws ignored intense demand and allowed the import of only a few thousand vehicles per year. Result: even hours of observation of YouTube videos of the streets of the capital Yangon got me nowhere. And on the downside for Myanmar buyers, this meant 1980′s Toyotas sold for nearly $30,000 locally…

Taxis in Yangon, Myanmar used to look like this…

But things are changing in Myanmar! The government is now selling import licenses to vehicle owners that turn over their junkers for smelting and the market is slowly becoming normalised. And just when I made a big fuss about the first Chinese model ranking #1 (officially) in an export market, it seems we may already have a second one…

…Now they look like this!

A notable breakout new car on Myanmar’s streets is the Chery QQ3. Patrick Winn from CNBC says you can’t stroll more than a few downtown blocks in Yangon without spotting a shiny, new Chery. Their fire-engine red paint jobs catch the eye in a sea of rust buckets. In fact, Chery’s own website claims that Myanmar’s government has “positioned QQ3 as a ‘national car.’”

The Chery QQ3 is brightening up Yangon’s streets

Last December, all 1,000 Chery QQ3 imported by the Ministry of Industry sold out within a week, in spite of seeing its original price, set by the ministry at US$5,800, more than double to US$12,800 once various duties, taxes and licensing fees were added. The reason why the QQ3 is so successful is because it has four doors and can easily be used for taxis because the small engines use little fuel. As a result, owners can easily rent the cars for K15,000 (US$17) a day to taxi drivers…

The same article from the Myanmar Times also mentions the Chery QQ3 is produced locally in Myanmar as the Myanmar Mini Wagon. However local consumers prefer the Chery as they feel the quality will be better. This is the first time I hear about the Myanmar Mini Wagon and I couldn’t find any pictures of it online so if you have more information about it please make sure to get in touch by commenting on here!

Source: Myanmar Times, Myanmar Life Blog. many thanks to Myk for the tip!

* Click on title for more pictures! *

Observation of the streets of Yangon through YouTube videos bring to light a particular situation in the Myanmar car market: very high import taxes make new cars an out of reach prospect for most consumers, and in this context, the 1992 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon swarm the streets, and the 1998 Nissan Sunny and 1993 Suzuki Wagon R are also very present. A few extremely rare 2007 Toyota Corolla and 2005 Toyota Hilux can also be seen.

Please get in touch if you have any more info about this market!

More pictures below.

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