New vehicle sales in Vietnam declined by 2.7% to 27,419 units in October 2019 from 28,182 units in the same month of last year, according to wholesale data released by the Vietnam Automotive Manufacturers Association (VAMA).
The vehicle market this year has been recovering from a last year's sharp decline, when new regulations had a severe impact on vehicle imports, with more positive months than negative ones recently. Economic growth is estimated to have accelerated to 7.3% year-on-year in the third quarter of the year from 6.7% in the second quarter, driven by strong manufacturing and investment growth.
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Vehicle sales in the first ten months of the year increased by 15% to 246,708 units from 214,597 units in the same period of last year, driven by an almost 29% jump in passenger vehicle sales to 184,290 units. Commercial vehicle sales were still 6.8% lower at 62,418 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 5.7% drop in group sales to 74,826 units in the ten-month period. This includes a 3.5% increase in Mazda sales to 27,084 units and a 1.9% rise in Kia sales to 23,764 units.
Toyota remained the leading vehicle brand in the country in the first ten months of the year, with sales rebounding by over 29% to 64,021 units from depressed year-earlier volumes, while Honda's sales jumped by over 28% to 27,050 units. Ford's sales also recovered strongly in this period, by over 54% to 26,518 units.
