Despite difficulties in the first half of 2018, the domestic automobile market saw impressive growth compared to the previous year with nearly 290,000 vehicles sold during the year, an annual rise of 5.8 percent.

According to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, sales of passenger cars grew 27.7 percent, while those of commercial and special-use vehicles dropped over 19 percent and 48 percent, respectively. Imports were greatly impacted by a decree which tightened regulations on cars shipped to Vietnam, allowing domestically-produced and assembled automobiles to drive the market’s growth. By the end of 2018, sales of domestically assembled vehicles rose 10.6 percent, while that of imported car fell 6.2 percent year on year. The leading firms in the market were Thaco, Toyota Vietnam, Ford Vietnam and Honda Vietnam.-VNA