A report by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) revealed that new vehicle sales climbed 9 per cent to 28,920 units in July. Sales of passenger cars rose to 22,848 units, a 15 per cent jump from the previous month. Meanwhile, sales of commercial vehicles fell by 9 per cent to 5,857 units. Special-purpose vehicle sales were up one per cent to 215 units.

VAMA's members also delivered 13,788 completely knocked-down (CKD) vehicles and 15,132 completely built-up (CBU) cars in July, up 6 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, from a month ago.

Total new vehicle sales from January to July reached 163,804 units, a 1 per cent jump from a year ago. Among them, deliveries of passenger cars and commercial vehicles stood at 120,143 and 42,298 units in the first seven months, up 1 per cent and 3 per cent on-year, respectively. Sales of special-purpose vehicles fell 1 per cent to 1,363 units in the given period.

VAMA's data also showed that sales of CKD units contracted 12 per cent to 81,637 units, while CBU vehicle sales rose 19 per cent on-year to 82,167 units from January-July.

Auto market experts believe that the strong increase in July sales is partly due to the anticipation of a policy that would reduce registration fees for domestically produced cars. Many customers made their purchases in July because they were afraid that carmakers would have difficulty maintaining competitive prices after August 1, when a 50 per cent cut in registration fees for cars was expected. This could have led to current promotions being slashed, but this policy has yet to be approved.

Another reason is that car dealers were offering discounts to stimulate sales before the 7th lunar month, which started on August 4. The month is believed to be a period of bad luck and inauspicious for spending large sums of money, such as purchasing real estate or cars.