Sales of automobiles rose in most segments during the first half of the year in comparison with the same period last year.

Inits latest report, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturer' Associationsaid that some 103,500 vehicles were sold in the Vietnamese marketduring the period, an increase of 58 percent period-on-period. Salesincluded 45 percent from small cars, 75 percent in commercial vehiclesand 136 percent from special-purpose vehicles.

In June, the saleof passenger cars reached the highest volume in every segment with 9,796units, a growth rate of 9.2 percent compared with the previous month.Meanwhile, commercial car sales saw an increase of 0.5 percent to 7,834units, while special-purpose autos lost 8.1 percent to 1,083 units.

Asthe purchasing power of passenger cars depended upon VAMA members, thatof commercial and special-purpose vehicles increased for car importers.

Themonth also saw an unbalanced growth rate between locally-assembledcomplete knock down (CKD) and imported complete built units (CBU).

Itwas further reported that domestic sales reached 14,448 CKD units and4,238 CBUs in June, increasing by 3 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Accordingto Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV), a member of the VAMA, the company'stotal sales volume reached 4,289 units in June, increasing by 25 percentcompared to the previous month. This is also the highest sales volumeof TMV in 2015.

Of note, the all-new Vios continued to lead insales with 1,106 vehicles sold in the passenger car segment, 42 percenthigher than the same period last year.

For CBU models distributedby TMV, in the first 6 months, the total sales volume increased by 72percent, compared with same period last year with 2,782 units. Figuresshowed that Hilux leads in CBU models with 744 sold units.-VNA