"The vicious competition among Chinese motorcycle makers led them to compromise on quality because they had to switch to cheaper, low-quality components to keep their costs down," Xu told the Global Times.
Opening the door to Japan
Over the subsequent years, Chinese motorcycles acquired a reputation for being of low quality, so Vietnamese consumers turned to Japanese motorcycles, despite their higher prices, Zhang said.
The Japanese companies tried to make it easier for their Vietnamese customers to afford their motorcycles by offering financing in the forms of unsecured loans or installment programs.
In 2015, Japan's Honda Motor Co accounted for 70 percent of the 2.8 million motorcycles sold in Vietnam, according to data from the Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers. The market had grown 4 percent from the previous year.
Honda, which entered the Vietnamese market two decades ago, is also struggling to maintain its momentum as the country's motorcycle market shows signs of saturation, Wang Danqing, a partner at Beijing-based consultancy ACG, told the Global Times.
As of May 2016, there were 45 million registered motorcycles in Vietnam, two for every person in country, according to data from the country's commerce authorities.
Electric surge
In the face of fierce competition in a mature market, some Chinese motorcycle makers have turned to selling electric motorbikes designed to look like motorcycles.
Lifan plans to start selling electric motorbikes in Vietnam this year. It began promoting its latest product lineup last week at the four-day 13th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Electric motorbikes can't go as fast as motorcycles, but they are safer and friendlier to the environment. Still, they will amount to little more than a niche market for the time being.
Under Vietnamese law, students under 16 years old cannot ride motorcycles to school, which gives electric motorbikes an advantage in this market segment, Zhang noted.
The government of Hanoi is reportedly discussing a proposal to ban motorcycles in the city in 2025 due to air pollution concerns.
Chinese-made electric scooters have been well received in Vietnam. Chinese electric motorbike exports jumped 10 percent in 2015 to 600,000 vehicles, Zhang said.
"It's a small amount compared with motorcycles," Zhang said. "But we want to get in early to have an opportunity to overtake our Japanese competitors in the electric scooter segment."
He noted that foreign companies have less expertise and experience than Chinese companies in manufacturing electric motorbikes.
Lifan is not the only Chinese company that sees the opportunity.
Yadea, an electric motorbike manufacturer in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province, set up a factory in Hanoi in July 2014.
However, both Zhang and Wang were concerned that more Chinese companies will soon mob Vietnam's fledging electric motorbike market, setting off another price war.
Analysts believe that Chinese companies need to focus on sustainable development when they invest in Southeast Asia.
Industrial associations and chambers of commerce in China and Southeast Asia countries could work together to create a category of credible brands that consumers can trust, Xu said.
