Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese automobile manufacturers and distributors hada banner month in May as the sales of car experienced a strong monthly growthof 30 percent following a line-up of promotions and discount programmes.
A total of 27,373 units were sold in May, surging 18 percent from the same timelast year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) said. Thesales included 19,517 passenger cars, 7,345 commercial cars, and 511 specialpurpose vehicles.
VAMA reported the sales of locally-assembled cars saw modest growth of 8percent to 15,162 units while that of imported vehicles increased sharply by 75percent to 12,211 units.
Giants such as Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco), Toyota, Mitsubishi, Fordand Honda claimed the majority of market share. Domestic automaker Thaco ledcar sales in Vietnam with 7,540 vehicles sold in May (down 14 percent fromApril), followed by Toyota Motor Vietnam with 6,321 units (up 51 percent).
Meanwhile, Honda Vietnam and Ford Vietnam lost grounds to Mitsubishi, whichrecorded 3,088 units in car sales in the month. Ford came in 4th place with 3,000 sold vehicles, and Honda in 5th place with 2,975cars.
During January-May, total car sales in the country reached 126,646 units, ayear-on-year increase of 22 percent.
According to VAMA, price cut was a good strategy to attract buyers.
Toyota Vietnam slashed prices up to 169 million VND (7,240 USD) for its ToyotaHiace model, 40 million VND (1,713 USD) for Toyota Fortuner, and up to 80million VND (3,427 USD) for Corolla Altis vehicle.
Thaco also raced to reduce auto prices, with CX-5 model 78 million VND (3,342 USD)cheaper than the listed price. Earlier, the firm decided to reduce the price ofMazda 3 vehicle by 50 million VND (2,142 USD).-VNA