Most of the price adjustments are occurring in the medium segment of VND500-700 million ($21,500-30,100) per unit, which had seen continuous discounts for nearly nine months.

Toyota has cut the discount on its popular Vios sedan by 40-50 percent to VND10-15 million. Discounts on Hyundai Accent have dropped by half to VND5-7 million.

Thaco, an assembler for South Korea’s Kia Motors, cut its VND10-20 million discount on some models such as the Kia Seltos and Kia Sorento SUVs.

Dealers say the discount cuts come as the year-end approaches, when a 50 percent registration fee cut that the government has given only for this year to boost sales will be discontinued.

This goes against the trend of previous years when the last quarter was often the discount season for dealers as they sought to meet annual targets.

September saw the highest monthly sales so far this year at 27,252 units, indicating a recovery in the market as the Covid-19 situation in Vietnam is contained, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

But, overall, auto sales in the first nine months fell 21.6 percent year-on-year to nearly 123,900 units, the association said.