Imported cars boost auto sales in October

Cars on display at the Vietnam Motor Show in Ho Chi Minh City last month (Photo: VNA)

VAMA reported on November 13 that the sales included 21,288 passenger cars (up 25 percent), 7,096 commercial vehicles (down 7 percent) and 515 special-purpose vehicles (up 31 percent).

While 17,599 domestically assembled cars were sold in October (up 2 percent), the number of imported completely built vehicles sold was 11,300, up 46 percent month on month.

Among car brands in Vietnam, Toyota led the market with 8,426 cars sold, followed by Honda (3,475), Mazda (2,920), Kia (2,657) and Ford (2,574).

Insiders attributed the surge in sales to businesses’ launch of promotion programmes throughout the Vietnam Motor Show 2018 last month and others to meet their yearly targets.

Notably, the sharp rise in imported car sales was also thanks to the fact that most importers have succeeded in handling import procedures under new regulations on car production, assembly and import conditions.

Between January and October, a total of 223,326 cars were sold in Vietnam, up 1 percent from the same period last year. The sales of domestically assembled cars increased by 11 percent to 174,664, while the figure for imported vehicles fell 22 percent to 48,756.

The best sellers in the 10 months were Mazda, Kia, Honda and Ford, respectively, according to VAMA.

Korean-invested Hyundai Thanh Cong sold 6,510 cars in October and 51,046 vehicles in the last 10 months. However, as it is not a VAMA member, its sales were not included in the association’s report.

Among all car brands, Hyundai ranked second, after Toyota, in October and first so far this year in terms of market share.

Insiders forecast as the year-end shopping season has begun, total car sales this year could surpass the 273,000 cars sold in 2017.