Vietnam sees surge in auto sales

By Hung Le June 19, 2019 | 11:10 pm PT

Vehicles are seen along a street in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham.

Auto sales rose by 22 percent year-on-year to 126,753 units in the first five months of the year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association says.

Sales of passenger cars rose by 35 percent and commercial vehicles sales by 0.2 percent, but sales of special-purpose vehicles plummeted by 39 percent.

In May alone, the vehicle sales surged 19 percent to 27,480 units from a year earlier. Last month, Toyota regained its top spot from domestic manufacturer Truong Hai Auto (Thaco) with a 24.1 percent share compared to the latter’s 18.9 percent. Sales of its Vios sedan almost doubled during the month to well over 2,100 units.

Thaco sold only 4,868 units in May, down 40 percent from the previous month, with Kia, Mazda and Peugeot passenger vehicles accounting for around half and buses and trucks for the rest.

Ford was in third place with a 12.4 percent market share, followed by Mitsubishi and Honda with 11.8 and 11.4 percent.

Vietnamese companies only use 7-10 percent of local parts and import the rest.

To put it in perspective the average use of local parts in Southeast Asian countries is 65-70 percent, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Last year Vietnam’s auto sales rose 10 percent to 276,817 units.