Car sales forecasted to reach 400,000 this year

By late December, car sales would climb to nearly 400,000, including Vinfast and Mercedes-Benz, the record high so far.

In the first 11 months of this year, Hyundai topped the country’s car sales of 70,802, followed by Toyota with 70,633, Honda with 30,113, Mazda with 29,498, Ford with 29,080 and Kia with 26,900.

This is seen as a successful year for Mitsubishi with 26,765 cars sold during the period, ranking the 7th in the market and six times higher than that of 2018. Of the figure, 17,306 were Xpander model.

Despite lower prices, car prices in Vietnam are still 10-20% higher than many regional countries due to high taxes.

Locally-made and assembled cars remained inferior to imported models as producers have to pay high taxes for spare part import.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has forecasted that car import value would be USD3.4 billion this year and the figure would be higher in the coming years. This not only seriously affects domestic automobile production but also affects the trade balance.

The ministry has proposed solutions to support domestic car manufacturers, including not applying special consumption tax for vehicles which are locally-produced, as part of efforts to reduce the price of cars.