Users' Perception of Vehicles Assembled in Cambodia and Driving Factors for Preferences

The Cambodian automotive sector is experiencing significant growth. It is observed that its expanding economy as a middle-class country with government support has pushed growing demands for brand-new vehicles. This signal indicates the shifts in preferences from imported cars to Cambodian-assembled vehicles. This also reflects users’ perception of vehicles assembled in Cambodia and driving factors for preferences. Thus, the study seeks to (1) explore knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of car users in Cambodia, (2) determine the correlation between KAP, and (3) identify factors influencing car preferences. With a purposive-sampling method, 204 responses were collected by using an online survey within a predetermined one-month period from 26 December 2024 to 25 January 2025 in compliance with the study requirements. The findings showed that only 10% of respondents agreed that most users prefer Cambodian-assembled vehicles over imported vehicles. Moreover, the knowledge, attitude, practice, and KAP of users in Cambodia on Cambodian-assembled vehicles are rated at a moderate level based on the class intervals of average scores. All variables in the knowledge, attitude, and practice are positive linear relationship. Furthermore, between the knowledge and attitude, between the knowledge and practice, and between the attitude and practice are positively correlated. The knowledge and attitude are meaningful for the practice, but they have little power on the practice because there are other factors not included in this model influencing the preferences of users. According to several sources, there are eight driving factors for users’ preferences, such as brand reputation and trust, perception of quality, price and value, awareness and promotion, models and features, status symbol, after-sales services, long-standing supply chain, and networks. The findings offer actionable insights for policymakers and local manufacturers to promote Cambodian-assembled vehicles and enhance their competitiveness. This study suggests that the Royal Government of Cambodia should support and promote Cambodian-assembled vehicles more actively. At the same time, the local manufacturers should make more improvements, especially after-sales services for Cambodian-assembled vehicles. Then, Cambodian-assembled vehicles will have the potential to compete with imported cars from various countries.