New vehicle sales in Vietnam jumped by 46% to 16,696 units in February 2020 from 11,466 units in the same month of last year, according to wholesale data released by the Vietnam Automotive Manufacturers Association (VAMA).
That followed a 52% sales decline in January due to the lunar new year holidays with most businesses in the country closed in the last week of that month.
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The market in February shrugged off the negativity of the global COVID19 pandemic, as consumers and businesses focused instead on the country's strong economic growth which averaged 7% in 2019.
Sales were still down sharply in the first two months of 2020, by over 26% to 31,908 units from 43,265 in the same period of last year.
Passenger vehicle deliveries fell by almost 30% to 24,458 units in this period from 34,909 units, while commercial vehicle sales were down by close to 13% to 7,450 units from 8,536.
Truong Hai (Thaco) group, the local assembler and distributor of Kia, Mazda and Peugeot, and a significant player in commercial vehicles, reported a more than 26% drop in group sales to 10,740 units in the first two months of the year. That included a 48% plunge in Mazda sales to 3,543 units and a 23% drop in Kia sales to 3,805.
Toyota remained the leading vehicle brand in the country in first two months of the year, with sales dropping by just 13% to 8,605 units, while Honda sales fell by close to 44% to 3,322.
Mitsubishi Motors outperformed the market in this period, with its sales rising by 7.8% to 3,222 thanks to strong demand for the Xpander MPV.
