Vietnam’s car sales drop for second consecutive month
The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) reported that its members suffered a decline in sales for the second consecutive month in February, with 22,802 cars sold units, or a 26% decrease.
Of the total, 17,541 units were passenger cars, and 4,782 units were commercial vehicles, down 31% and 7.6% month on month, respectively. Meanwhile, 479 special-purpose vehicles were sold, up 67% against the previous month.
The sales of domestically-assembled vehicles fell 18% to 14,528 units, while those of imported CBU cars decreased 36% to 8,274 units.
Insiders said that as February coincides with the Lunar New Year Festival, consumption power normally reaches the bottom, which is the same for the automobile sector.
This is the second month that the industry saw decline in sales after a 21% rise in December 2021.
However, in the first two months of 2022, VAMA members sold 53,544 vehicles to the market, up 34% over the same period last year. Of which, 42,820 were passenger cars, 9,959 were commercial vehicles and 765 were special-purpose vehicles. The figures represented respective rises of 42%, 4.7% and 62% year on year.
As of the end of February, 32,310 domestically-assembled vehicles were sold, along with 21,234 imported CBU cars, up 41% and 25%, respectively.
Experts attributed the increase in the sales of domestically-assembled vehicles to a cut of 50% in registration fee on the product.
However, the above-mentioned sales yet to fully reflected the entire auto market of Vietnam since such brands as Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Volvo did not reveal their sales.
Among those that are not VAMA members, VinFast sold 1,154 automobiles in February, while TC Motor supplied 4,173 vehicles to the market. With sales of TC Motor and VinFast, the entire market saw 28.129 vehicles sold in February and 47,168 in the first two months.
Kia topped the list of sellers in February with 5,112 units sold. It was followed by Toyota (4,288), Hyundai of TC Motor (4,173), Mazda (2,468), Honda (1,830), and Mitsubishi (1,682).
Experts predicted that with the better control of COVID-19 and support of 50% in registration fee until May, the industry will enjoy good growth in next months. This year, the industry expects 500,000 vehicles to be sold.