HANOI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's total automobile sales in 2017 were 272,750 units, posting a year-on-year drop of 10 percent, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Thursday.
Specifically, sales of passenger cars decreased 15 percent, those of commercial vehicles such as trucks, pick-ups and vans, declined 2 percent, and those of special-purpose vehicles fell 12 percent.
Sales of domestically assembled automobiles dropped 19 percent, while those of imported ones increased 9 percent, said the association.
The smaller sales in 2017 were mainly attributed to wait-and-see attitude of potential buyers who were waiting for lower prices of imported vehicles in 2018, local experts said. In January 2018, import taxes on vehicles were slashed to zero percent in line with the ASEAN Free Trade Area.
Total vehicle sales in Vietnam will increase to over 284,400 units in 2018, global research company BMI Research forecast.
Passenger car demand will be driven by reduction in tax rates on vehicles with engine sizes of 2.0 liters or less, and the elimination of tariffs on completely-built units from ASEAN member countries in January 2018, the London-based firm said.
Vietnam spent over 5.3 billion U.S. dollars importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly between in 2017, down 10.5 percent against 2016, said the General Statistics Office.
Specifically, Vietnam imported 94,000 completely-built automobiles worth nearly 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, posting respective declines of 16.8 percent and 9.6 percent.
A single purchase
