Vietnam August 2011: Kia Morning on its way to #1 over full year

Kia Morning in Hanoi, Vietnam January 2011.

* See the Top 20 best-selling models by clicking on ‘Read more’ at end of post!

Vietnamese car sales are up a healthy 10% this month at 9,518 registrations, bringing the 2011 year-to-date total to 70,650 units, up 2%. For the third time in the last 4 months, the Kia Morning (aka Picanto) is #1 in Vietnam, this time with an outstanding 9.4% share, its best so far in the country. This is even more impressive given the fact that its local manufacturer, Thaco Trường Hải, hasn’t switched production lines to the new generation yet…

The success of the Morning is such in the last few months that it now stands just ONE unit below the Toyota Innova in the 2011 year-to-date ranking, at 4,136 sales and 5.9% share. It if continues at this rate, the Kia Morning will be the first non-Toyota model to lead Vietnamese sales at year-end in at least 8 years (I don’t have any info before 2003)…

Other great performers this month include, well, all Toyotas, now fully recovered from their supply issues: the Innova (6.8%), Vios (6.7%), Fortuner (6.4%) and Corolla Altis (6.2%) all post shares much higher than their 2011 ytd levels. The Ford Fiesta also shines for its 3rd month in the country at #8 with 3.2%, and we welcome the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (aka ASX) into the Top 20 at #19 and 97 units for its very first month of sales in Vietnam.

Previous month: see the Vietnam July 2011 Top 20 best-selling models here.

Full August 2011 Top 20 Ranking Table below.