Car market encounters stagnation despite strong discounts

The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) said its members sold 25,369 units in October, approximating the previous month’s sales (25,375 units) but falling 31% from the same period last year.

They included 19,624 passenger cars, decreasing 0.2% month on month, while the number of commercial vehicles sold increased slightly, by 1%, to 5,604, indicating certain recovery in transportation and business demand, VAMA noted.

During the first 10 months of 2023, VAMA members delivered 235,296 units to buyers, down 29% year on year, with passenger cars down 32%, commercial vehicles down 16%, and special purpose ones down 60%, statistics show.

There are also many other brands in the Vietnamese car market such as Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Volvo, but they do not reveal their business results.

Thanh Cong (TC) Group with the brand of Hyundai sold 7,458 units last month, raising its 10-month sales to 48,626 units.

In total, VAMA members and TC Group posted sales of 32,827 units in October and 283,922 units during 10 months.

Insiders said though carmakers have continuously launched promotions and discounts by tens of millions (VND10 million = $411.56) to almost half of a billion of dong in recent months to attract buyers, the market stayed flat last month, failing to meet businesses’ expectations.

Consumers seem to remain reluctant to make use of the discount race due to economic reasons, they noted, forecasting that the market is unlikely to witness a sudden increase.

This year, it will be hard for the market to reach the sales figure of over 404,000 units like in 2022. The total sales are estimated at about 70% of that number because economic difficulties are making consumers tighten their belt, insiders predicted.