New vehicle sales in Vietnam continued to rebound strongly in July 2019, by close to 28% to 25,828 units from 20,212 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. Economic growth was estimated at 6.7% year on year in the second quarter of 2019, slightly down from 6.8% in the first quarter, driven by strong domestic consumption and industrial output growth.
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Vehicle sales in the first seven months of the year increased by 19.8% to 171,640 units from 143,324 units in the same period of last year, driven by a 33% jump in passenger vehicle sales to 128,257 units. Commercial vehicle sales were still more than 7.4% lower at 43,383 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 7.3% drop in group sales to 53,657 units in the seven month period. Mazda sales were up by 6.6% at 20,160 units, while Kia sales increased by 1.4% to 16,496 units.
Toyota remained the leading vehicle brand in the country in the seven month period, with sales rebounding by almost 48% to 44,405 units from depressed year earlier volumes, while Honda sales jumped by close to 47% to 19,259 units. Ford sales also recovered strongly in this period, by over 66% to 18,246 units.
