Sales by members of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) continued rising high last month with nearly 10,000 automobiles sold, the Saigon Times Daily reported.

VAMA has yet to release the official figure. However, according to statistics of VAMA members, they sold around 9,850 autos in total last month, up by nearly 1,650 units year on year and roughly equivalent to the figure recorded in April.

Notably, Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco) maintains its strong grip in the first position. Thaco sold 3,568 units last month, up around 50 units compared to April and nearly 1,000 units compared to last year’s same period, and held a market share of 36.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the sales by Toyota Vietnam was around 2,800 units in the same period and accounted for 28.4 percent. Toyota had for many years on end taken the lead in the domestic market.

This is the fourth month in a row Thaco has topped the sales chart so far this year with a total of over 14,360 units sold.

Other members of VAMA also posting high sales in May are Ford Vietnam with 932 (up 314 units), GM Vietnam 412 (up 84 units) and Honda Vietnam 457 (up 170 units).

Overall, VAMA members sold around 44,100 units in total in the year’s first five months, rising by nearly 9,300 units against last year’s same period. Sport utility and multi-purpose vehicles sold well in the period with 10,650 units, up 33 percent.

In related news, Toyota Vietnam on June 10 unveiled Yaris 2014, the completely built-up hatchback imported from Thailand. The 1.3G and 1.3E editions of Yaris 2014 are priced at 669 million VND and 620 million VND respectively.

Toyota Vietnam targets to sell 120 Yaris cars each month to increase its market share in the compact hatchback segment. Three years after Yaris was launched in Vietnam, as many as 2,500 units have been sold.-VNA