Automobile sales dips six percent in eight months

Members of the VAMA sold more than 177,000 cars in the first eight months of the year, down 6 percent from the same time last year - Photo: VNA

Sales of tourist, commercial and specialised cars experienced respective year-on-year declines of 4 percent, 7 percent and 12 percent.

Vietnamese car buyers preferred imported cars to locally assembled vehicles as the domestically built units in the reviewed time faced a drop of 11 percent to 126,984 whilst those purchased from foreign countries surged 10 percent to 50,053 cars.

In August alone, automobile sales reached 22,099 cars. Local carmarker Truong Hai Automobile JSC (Thaco) led the market with 6,228 units, occupying 30 percent of the market share. Toyota Motor Vietnam was in the second with 5,794 cars, owning 27.9 percent of the market share, followed by Ford Vietnam, which sold 2,292 units.

Automakers continued their big promotion to trigger car sales in August. Honda Vietnam cut the prices of its Civic, Accord and CR-V models by nearly 200 million VND (8,800 USD). Thaco reduced tens of millions of VND for its Mazda, even for best sellers Kia Morning and Cerato. Meanwhile, Huyndai Thanh Cong offered discounts of 40-70 million VND (1,760- 3,080 USD), depending on versions.