Vietnamese VinFast has international aims
(Turin) The design is Italian, the CEO German and the Vietnamese manufacturer: VinFast, a subsidiary of the Vingroup conglomerate, is preparing to set out to conquer the very promising, but contested, European market for electric vehicles.
After having already announced the launch in Europe of two electric SUVs for next year, VinFast is accelerating and intends to “present other 100% electric models from the first quarter of 2022”, its marketing director Thomas Chrétien said Thursday in Turin.
The first deliveries in Europe are scheduled for the end of 2022, he said on the sidelines of the presentation to the press of the prototype of the VF e35, a high-end electric SUV intended for the European and North American markets.
Based in British Columbia
VinFast initially produced conventional vehicles – with 30,000 sales in Vietnam in 2020 – but is turning to electric vehicles for its international expansion. VinFast is expanding into the United States, France, Germany and the Netherlands next year, while the company’s Canadian subsidiary will be located in Burnaby, British Columbia.
VinFast has not yet detailed the dates of a possible Canadian launch, but a spokesperson for the company said in July that there would be a lot of information to share in the near future. The company has already indicated its intention to launch the large VF e33 SUV, powered by two electric motors with a total power of 402 horsepower, capable of traveling about 480 km between each recharge. A second model, the VF e32 mid-size SUV, is also due to be launched in Canada. It is powered by a single electric motor with a power of 201 horsepower, but the dual engine (the same as that of the VF e33) is supposed to be offered as an option.
In an attempt to win against automotive giants like Tesla or Volkswagen, VinFast is banking on the know-how of Italian automotive design icon Pininfarina, who has already designed four models for the young brand.
The VF e35, which will be on display at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, is 4.75m tall, taller than the BMW X3, and has a range of up to 500km and engine power of up to 300 kW.
“VinFast has ambitious plans” for its development in Europe and the United States, which will be implemented with “discipline and rigor”, said in a video message the CEO of the brand, the former boss of Opel Michael Lohscheller.
Created in 2017 by multibillionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, the richest man in Vietnam, the manufacturer sells family cars and SUVs as well as electric scooters and electric buses, for a total of around 30,000 vehicles in 2020.
In Europe, VinFast’s primary target markets will be France, Germany and the Netherlands, where the Vietnamese group has started to establish itself to create a distribution network.
“It will not be easy to enter the European market, but we are sure that we can impose ourselves thanks to our high-end quality and competitive prices”, assured Bich Tran, general manager of VinFast for Europe.
But “VinFast relies on value and does not have the ambition to flood the market with low-cost models,” added Mr. Chrétien, when asked about the group’s pricing policy.
The company launched its first electric car model for the Vietnamese market in March, the VF e34, which costs around $ 29,000, and said it has received more than 25,000 orders in three months.
Its factory in Haiphong, near Hanoi, the construction of which cost 4.4 billion dollars, has a production capacity of 250,000 vehicles and 500,000 electric scooters per year.
The Vingroup empire, with a market capitalization of $ 16 billion, ranges from real estate to tourism, including education, health and retail.
