Hanoi (VNA) – Almost 28,900 cars were sold inVietnam in October, up 21 percent from the previous month, according to theVietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

VAMA reported on November 13 that the salesincluded 21,288 passenger cars (up 25 percent), 7,096 commercial vehicles (down7 percent) and 515 special-purpose vehicles (up 31 percent).

While 17,599 domestically assembled cars weresold in October (up 2 percent), the number of imported completely builtvehicles sold was 11,300, up 46 percent month on month.

Among car brands in Vietnam, Toyota led themarket with 8,426 cars sold, followed by Honda (3,475), Mazda (2,920), Kia(2,657) and Ford (2,574).

Insiders attributed the surge in sales tobusinesses’ launch of promotion programmes throughout the Vietnam Motor Show2018 last month and others to meet their yearly targets.

Notably, the sharp rise in imported car saleswas also thanks to the fact that most importers have succeeded in handlingimport procedures under new regulations on car production, assembly and importconditions.

Between January and October, a total of 223,326cars were sold in Vietnam, up 1 percent from the same period last year. Thesales of domestically assembled cars increased by 11 percent to 174,664, whilethe figure for imported vehicles fell 22 percent to 48,756.

The best sellers in the 10 months were Mazda,Kia, Honda and Ford, respectively, according to VAMA.

Korean-invested Hyundai Thanh Cong sold 6,510cars in October and 51,046 vehicles in the last 10 months. However, as it isnot a VAMA member, its sales were not included in the association’s report.

Among all car brands, Hyundai ranked second,after Toyota, in October and first so far this year in terms of market share.

Insiders forecast as the year-end shoppingseason has begun, total car sales this year could surpass the 273,000 cars soldin 2017.-VNA