Hanoi (VNA) - Automobile sales in Augustwere down 14 percent against July, to 20,655 units, despite the introduction ofa range of promotional programmes, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA).

Sales of passenger cars fell 12 percent,to 15,419 units, while those of commercial vehicles fell 19 percent to 4,966 andspecial-use vehicles 20 percent to 270.

There were 12,869 domestically-assembled vehicles soldduring the month, down 20 percent against July, along with 7,786 imported cars,a fall of 2 percent.

Analysts said that the reduction of registration fees ondomestically-assembled automobiles by half, which led to fall of 15-300 millionVND in the total cost of a car, helped boost sales.

Toyota Vietnam led VAMA members, with sales of 4,259 units,followed by Mazda with 2,644 vehicles and Kia with 2,541 vehicles.

Honda Vietnam, however, led in sales growth, selling 1,634units in August, up 38 percent against July. The CR-V 2020 and City were “hot” modelsduring the month, with respective sales of 935 and 459 units.

VAMA members sold 151,903 automobiles of all kinds in thefirst eight months of 2020, down 25 percent year-on-year. The decline in the salesof passenger cars was 26 percent, commercial vehicles 22 percent, and special-usevehicles 36 percent.

The figures, however, do not reflect the situation in themarket as a whole, as they exclude non-VAMA members such as Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover,Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, Volvo, VinFast, and TC Motor.

TC Motor alone sold 5,367 vehicles in August and 40,987vehicles in the first eight months of the year, while VinFast sold 1,494 units inAugust.

Insiders said the COVID-19 pandemic has led to morecautious spending among consumers, and August coincided with the seventh lunar month,which is not a good month for buying or selling anything in the minds ofVietnamese. The second half of the seventh lunar month is in September, so resultsmay be similar to August, they predict./.