A corner of TC Motor factory. TC Motor sold 7,606 vehicles in July, up 35.5 per cent month-on-month and taking the figure for the first seven months to 35,620. -- Photo tcmotor.vn

Sales of automobiles plunged 28 per cent year-on-year to 131,248 units in the first seven months of this year, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA).

Sales of all types fell, with passenger cars down 29 per cent, commercial vehicles 23 per cent, and special-use vehicles 39 per cent.

The July figure hit 24,065 units, up a mere 0.3 per cent against June and down 13 per cent compared to July 2019.

The sale of domestically-assembled vehicles rose 2 per cent month-on-month in July, to 16,088 units, while imports were down 2 per cent to 7,977 units.

The figures, however, do not reflect overall consumption in the automobile market, as they exclude sales of manufacturers that are not VAMA members, such as Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Hyundai Thanh Cong.

Hyundai Thanh Cong’s TC Motor sold 7,606 vehicles in July, up 35.5 per cent month-on-month and taking the figure for the first seven months to 35,620.

Meanwhile, some 2,210 VinFast automobiles were sold in July. With an average of 2,200 vehicles being sold monthly, the local carmaker’s sales stand at around 15,270 for January-July.

The combined sales of VAMA members, TC Motor, and VinFast reached 33,885 in July, for 182,138 in the first seven months. VNS