New vehicle sales in Vietnam increased by over 13% to 27,058 units in September 2019 from 23,933 units a year earlier, according to wholesale data released by the Vietnam Automotive Manufacturers Association (VAMA).
The vehicle market continued to recover from a sharp decline last year when new regulations had a severe impact on vehicle imports.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Economic growth was estimated to have accelerated to 7.3% year on year in the third quarter from 6.7% in the second quarter, driven by strong manufacturing and investment growth.
Vehicle sales in the first nine months of the year increased by close to 18% to 219,205 units from 186,415 units in the same period of last year, boosted by a more than 29% jump in passenger vehicle sales to 163,485 units.
Commercial vehicle sales were still 7% lower at 55,720 in this period, however.
Truong Hai (Thaco) group, the local assembler and distributor of brands such as Kia, Mazda and Peugeot and a significant player in the commercial vehicle segment, reported a 5.6% drop in group sales to 67,168 units in the nine month period. This, however, included a 5.7% increase in Mazda sales to 24,569 units and a 2.1% rise in Kia sales to 21,081 units.
Toyota remained the leading vehicle brand in the first nine months of the year with sales rebounding by over 38% to 56,805 units from depressed year earlier volume while Honda sales jumped by over 36% to 23,992 units. Ford sales also recovered strongly in this period, by over 59% to 23,320 units.
