Home Car The New Year Car Rush: Vietnamese Car Buyers Rev Up Despite Tax

The New Year Car Rush: Vietnamese Car Buyers Rev Up Despite Tax

30 July, 2025

Fee reductions for registration fees are often seen as an effective “medicine” for the Vietnamese automobile market. In previous years, thanks to the policy of supporting a 50% reduction in registration fees for domestically assembled cars, the automobile sales in Vietnam recorded quite good growth in both domestic and imported car groups.

However, until the end of the second quarter, the Vietnamese automobile market was still thriving, and a dose of registration fee reduction like in previous years seemed unnecessary.

Unnecessary Medicine

Last year, the Vietnamese car market received the fourth round of registration fee incentives for domestically assembled cars, starting from September 2024 and lasting only 3 months.

Although the implementation time was only half of the previous registration fee reduction campaigns, the period from September to November 2024 witnessed a strong growth in car purchases in the Vietnamese market.

The year-end sales boost also helped the Vietnamese car market succeed, with sales reaching 340,142 units, equivalent to a 12.6% increase compared to the previous year.

However, this year, the Vietnamese automobile market does not seem to need a similar incentive.

According to a report by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA), in May, the total market sales reached 29,210 units. As a result, the total car consumption in Vietnam from the beginning of the year reached 131,044 units, equivalent to a 21% increase compared to the first five months of 2024.

Vietnamese customers are buying more cars
Car market sales in Vietnam in the first five months, from 2023 to 2025 (Data: VAMA)
Label	First 5 months of 2023	First 5 months of 2024	First 5 months of 2025
	cars	113,527	108,309	131,044

According to the VAMA report, imported car sales from the beginning of the year reached 62,764 units, up 13% from last year. Imported car consumption in the same period reached 68,280 units, up 29% from the first five months of 2024.

The list of best-selling models from the beginning of the year continues to include many domestically assembled cars. These include the Mazda CX-5 (5,884 units after 5 months), Ford Territory (4,521 units), Toyota Vios (4,206 units), Honda City (3,266 units), and Hyundai Accent (3,240 units).

Among these, only the Hyundai Accent had lower sales in the first five months compared to the same period last year. The rest recorded quite good sales growth, notably the Ford Territory, which doubled its sales performance compared to the first five months of 2024.

Can’t Always Rely on Fee Reductions

Last year, just before the registration fee incentive policy took effect, Vietnamese customers had continuously enjoyed similar or even higher incentives offered by car manufacturers, applicable to both domestically assembled and imported cars.

However, the psychology of waiting for double incentives – including manufacturer promotions and registration fee reductions from the government – was one of the reasons that caused the total market sales to slow down in August 2024.

It wasn’t until the registration fee incentive took effect that Vietnam’s automobile sales grew steadily with a large margin for three consecutive months, only to drop sharply again as soon as the incentive ended.

This raises the question of whether the health of the Vietnamese car market is too dependent on registration fee reduction campaigns.

The Vietnamese market used to grow sales well during the registration fee incentive period. Illustration: Phuong Lam.

Recent developments show that at least up to this point in 2025, Vietnamese customers are not too concerned about the registration fee reduction campaigns implemented by the government. The fact that car sales in Vietnam as of the end of May are 21% higher than the same period last year is proof of this.

It is likely that a series of promotional programs and incentives with values of up to hundreds of millions of dong implemented by manufacturers play an important role in keeping the market healthy without the need for a dose of registration fee reduction.

Without government incentives, popular domestically assembled cars in Vietnam such as the Mazda CX-5, Ford Territory, Toyota Vios, Honda City, and Hyundai Accent have continuously been offered a series of incentives by manufacturers since the beginning of the year.

Sales consultants say that the 2025 versions of the Mazda CX-5 are offering a maximum cash incentive of 50 million dong. All four versions of the Ford Territory are being offered a 100% registration fee incentive by the manufacturer in June, equivalent to 76-89 million dong.

Ford Territory sales doubled compared to the first five months of last year. Image: Ford Vietnam.

Toyota Vios receives a “double incentive” from the manufacturer, including a 50% registration fee support and official gifts. The total value of incentives for the Toyota Vios in June ranges from 30 to 35 million dong depending on the version.

Honda also offers a 50% registration fee support for the Honda City. With the current price of 499-569 million dong, customers in Vietnam are getting a reduction of 25-28.5 million dong in car registration costs depending on the version when choosing to buy this B-segment sedan.

These incentive programs are equivalent to or even higher than the 50% registration fee reduction in previous campaigns by the government. Therefore, customers in 2025 are not waiting for the registration fee reduction campaign, but are buying cars as soon as they have a need.

As for imported cars, manufacturers and dealers are also offering attractive incentives, supporting up to hundreds of millions of dong for customers.

Many imported car models are also continuously offered incentives of up to hundreds of millions of dong. Image: Phuc Hau.

Subaru Forester and Subaru Crosstrek are models that are often offered cash incentives of up to 230 million dong by the manufacturer. Skoda Karoq and Skoda Kodiaq old versions are also offered large discounts by the Czech car manufacturer, ranging from 175 million to 200 million dong depending on the version.

Boost from Electric Vehicles

The emergence of leading electric vehicle brands, such as VinFast, has both brought pressure to traditional car brands and acted as a growth driver for the Vietnamese car market.

Vietnamese customers now have a variety of affordable electric vehicle options, mainly urban electric cars priced from 200 to 300 million dong.

The group of electric SUV/hatchback models in segment A has also received much attention in Vietnam, with prices ranging from 400 to 550 million dong.

Electric cars challenge the market share of gasoline cars but are a growth driver for the entire Vietnamese car market. Images: TMT Motors, VinFast.

These models have become a priority choice for first-time car buyers thanks to their low prices, adequate space, and amenities. Many Vietnamese customers also choose to buy electric cars to experience new technology, and electric cars are also suitable for urban environments that tend to be quite congested.

As a result, traditional cars face significant pressure, witnessing some impact on their market share. However, looking at the big picture, electric cars, with their advantages in usage costs and more accessible prices due to being completely exempt from registration fees, are contributing to accelerating the popularization of cars in Vietnam.

The scale of the Vietnamese car market is also expanding rapidly, partly thanks to electric vehicle brands. For example, VinFast became the best-selling car brand in Vietnam in 2024 with sales of 87,000 units, leading the market and creating a gap of more than 30,000 units compared to the second-ranked brand.

In general, the relatively healthy development of the Vietnamese car market this year is expected to continue until the end of December. In that case, 2025 will be the first time in the last five years that the Vietnamese car market has reached its goal without any registration fee reduction campaigns from the government.

Good Books to Read in the Car

The Cars section introduces readers to interesting book titles on various topics. On those journeys with cars, there are moments of rest and relaxation, and books are interesting companions.

Unnecessary Medicine

Can’t Always Rely on Fee Reductions

Boost from Electric Vehicles

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