Car sales in Vietnam reached over 41,300 units in the first four months of this year, a year on year increase of 36 percent, according to the information recently released by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA).

Among the units, 26,800 cars and 14,560 trucks were sold, up 48 percent and 24 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

VAMA raised its forecast for car sales this year to 125,000 from 120,000 units, hoping sales will increase in the near future, according to VAMA president Metelo Jesus Arias.

Automobile sales in the first four months also found a difference between the completely knocked down (CKD) cars, or domestically assembled cars, and completely built units (CBU), or imported vehicles.

Accordingly, the number of CKD vehicles sold in the January – April period was 30,580 units, up 98 percent compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, the sales of CBU vehicles hit 10,780 units, up 24 percent.

Sales of domestically assembled cars in April topped over 11,340 units, rising 29 percent compared to April last year, marking the second consecutive month the sales volume has surpassed 11,000 units and the thirteenth consecutive month car sales by VAMA members have exceeded the statistics of the same period of the previous year.

Among the more than 11,340 vehicles were 4,534 trucks and 6,810 passenger cars and utility vehicles.

Ford Vietnam’s automobile sales amounted to 939 units in April, up 37 percent compared to the same period last year, the highest in the firm’s sales history in Vietnam.

Mitsubishi also sold 275 units, soaring 110 percent year on year while Toyota vended over 3,000 vehicles, up more than 8 percent compared to the same period last year.