Japanese brands, including Toyota and Mitsubishi, were the biggest sellers among imported cars in Q1. Toyota sold 11,661 completely built units, while Mitsubishi imported 7,797.
They were followed by Honda, Mazda and Suzuki. Last year, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Suzuki sold the most imported cars, with Toyota alone selling more than half of all imported cars.
Fifteen out of 17 models Toyota sells are imported from Indonesia, Thailand and Japan. The sedan Vios and SUV Innova are assembled locally, while the SUV Fortuner is both assembled and imported.
Mitsubishi also imports most of its models, with the popular MPV Xpander, imported from Indonesia, accounting for 53 percent of its total imports sold last year.
The remaining models, like the pickup truck Triton and sedan Attrage, are imported from Thailand.
Suzuki and Isuzu also import from Thailand and Indonesia.
Nearly 7,000 Mazda cars, distributed by Truong Hai Auto Corporation, were imported from Thailand last year. This accounted for 26 percent of total Mazda sales in Vietnam.
Honda has its two main models City and CR-V assembled locally and imports the rest.
Ford has recently started assembling its pickup truck Ranger model in Vietnam while the other models SUV Everest and SUV Explorer are imported from Thailand and the U.S. respectively.
Some luxury brands like Volkswagen, Audi and BWM only import completely built units.
Kia, Hyundai and VinFast only assemble.