January car sales drop due to long Tet holiday

Members of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) sold 18,893 vehicles in January, down 1.8% year-on-year, according to the association’s latest report.

Of the total, there were 9,120 domestically manufactured and assembled vehicles, dropping 29% month-on-month, and 9,773 imported units, down 48% month-on-month.

The auto sales included 14,201 tourism cars, reducing 42% month-on-month; 4,354 commercial vehicles, down 33%; and 338 special-purpose cars, declining 40%.

Experts said the decline of the auto sales is blamed for the long Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday which resulted in lower demand for vehicles. Meanwhile, many customers want to wait for new models which are scheduled to be introduced this year by different brands.