Toyota Innova Cross overwhelms Hyundai Custin sales

The race in the mid-size MPV segment is less exciting than the small car segment, with only Hyundai Custin and Toyota Innova Cross competing for the main market share. Haima models such as 7X and 7X-E have insignificant sales. In the near future, this segment will have the all-electric BYD M6, expected to go on sale from October.

Similar to the last 3 months of 2023, Innova Cross sales (including Innova) continued to overwhelm its rival Hyundai Custin with a difference of nearly double. Toyota's car model is distributed in two forms: assembled and imported. Custin is purely assembled.

The information about preferential registration fees for assembled cars in September did not seem to affect Custin as August sales increased by 24% compared to July, despite another factor being the 7th lunar month, when people often abstain from buying large-value items. After 8 months, Hyundai Custin sold more than 1,600 units.

Since Toyota repositioned its products, the Innova line in general is no longer the main sales driver for the Japanese company in the MPV segment priced under one billion VND. When it was first launched in late 2023, the supply of the Innova Cross was not abundant, and sales of old-style, manual-transmission Innova models still dominated. To date, the MPV model with the suffix Cross has become the version that contributes the main market share (87%) to Toyota's Innova line.

If only counting the Innova Cross line equipped with automatic transmission in both versions, sales are also larger than Hyundai Custin, 2,740 cars compared to 1,646 cars. The price of Custin (820-974 million VND) is almost equal to Innova Cross (810-990 million VND).

The superior sales of Toyota Innova Cross come from many factors. Toyota's MPV model is a hybrid SUV design, giving it a smooth and strong appearance, more suitable for the majority. While Custin is purely an MPV with a traditional sliding door style. The reputation of the Innova line at one time also made loyal customers return to the new product, which has been comprehensively upgraded, from the chassis platform to the equipment.

The hybrid engine option of the Innova Cross is the new spice of this segment. The high price is an obstacle, but the experience with hybrid engine technology is also more interesting than traditional gasoline cars, especially in terms of fuel economy. Some transportation businesses choose the Innova Cross hybrid to pick up and drop off customers, which also helps increase sales of this model.

In the segment above 1 billion, Kia Carnival is still alone because it has no direct competitors in terms of price. Due to the preparation for the mid-cycle upgrade (launched on September 16), supply has decreased, Carnival sales in August decreased by 44% compared to the previous month. Similar in size but priced higher than Carnival are the two models GAC M8 (1.699-2.199 billion VND) and Volkswagen Viloran (1.989-2.188 billion VND).

Since September, when preferential registration fees for domestically assembled cars are applied, sales of Carnival and Custin have many opportunities to improve.