Toyota Motor Corp has launched its first hybrid car in Vietnam

Toyota Motor Corp. has launched the Corolla Cross SUV in Vietnam, its first hybrid vehicle to be sold in the Southeast Asian country.

According to the Japan Times, Toyota Motor Vietnam Co., the automaker’s local manufacturing and sales unit, said Wednesday it will import the latest SUV model from Thailand, where Toyota first released it globally in early July.

Related: Vietnam reduces car registration fee by half

Toyota Motor Thailand Co., the group’s core subsidiary in the region’s car production hub, is assembling the model after a nearly two-month factory suspension due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Toyota Motor Vietnam also said it will launch the Toyota Corolla Altis 2020 sedan next week, Japan Times reported.

Vietnam’s auto sales in June surged 26 percent against May, with industry insiders attributing it to the government’s cutting of first-time registration fees by half.

The combined sales of companies that belong to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), a business group of more than 20 auto manufacturers – with Hyundai being a notable exception — in June reached 23,324 vehicles.

However, this represented a 13 percent decline from a year earlier.

VAMA said passenger cars accounted for 17,584 units sold in June, up 35 percent from May. Commercial vehicles were in second place with 6,109 and special-purpose vehicles in third with 309, respectively up 5 percent and 18 percent from May.

Vietnamese Prime Minister signed a new decree on June 28 that cut first-time registration fees for locally made cars, trailers and semi-trailers towed by cars among others by half.

The cut will last through this year before returning to old levels on January 1, 2021.

Compiling by Vietnam Insider’s staff