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

In its latest report, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturer' Association said that some 103,500 vehicles were sold in the Vietnamese market during the period, an increase of 58 percent period-on-period. Sales included 45 percent from small cars, 75 percent in commercial vehicles and 136 percent from special-purpose vehicles.

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

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

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

It was further reported that domestic sales reached 14,448 CKD units and 4,238 CBUs in June, increasing by 3 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

According to Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV), a member of the VAMA, the company's total sales volume reached 4,289 units in June, increasing by 25 percent compared to the previous month. This is also the highest sales volume of TMV in 2015.

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

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