New vehicle sales in Vietnam continued to grow strongly in June 2019, by close to 22% to 26,207 units from 21,543 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 in the previous year when the introduction of new regulations had a severe impact on vehicle imports. Economic growth was estimated to have accelerated in the second quarter of the year from 6.8% year on year in the first quarter on strong domestic consumption and industrial output growth.
Vehicle sales in the first six months of the year increased 18.4% to 145,811 units from 123,112 units a year earlier, driven by an almost 33% jump in passenger vehicle sales to 109,423 units. Commercial vehicle sales were more than 10% lower at 36,388 units 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 9% drop in group sales to 45,872 units in the first half. Mazda sales rose 4.9% to 17,314 units while Kia volume increased 5.8% to 14,580 units.
Toyota remained the leading vehicle brand in the first half of the year with sales rebounding by almost 44% to 37,030 units from depressed year earlier volume, while Honda sales jumped by close to 47% to 16,419 units. Ford sales also recovered strongly in this period, by over 61% to 15,460 units.
