Not so long ago, an unknown Vietnamese automaker with ambition to gain a foothold in the premium market would hardly have been taken seriously. Today, the arrival, expected in 2022, of the VinFast brand is not entirely surprising. The electric car has become the horizon of the automobile industry, and technological barriers such as income from the situation inherited from the reign of thermal engines are cracking.
The success of the American Tesla, proof that the cards are being redistributed and that there are places to be taken in the closed premium circle, has caused an influx of outsiders. Newcomers from high-tech, with the automotive projects of Huawei or Apple in particular, but also players from countries in search of a flag bearer.
Since its appearance in 2018 at the Paris Motor Show, VinFast has worked hard. A factory capable of producing 250,000 vehicles per year was built in Haiphong, in the north of the country, for an investment of 4.4 billion dollars (3.7 billion euros).
Check all the boxes
After having produced 30,000 units of thermal models in 2020 designed on BMW and General Motors technical bases, the manufacturer presented, Thursday, September 23 in Turin (Italy), two 100% electric vehicles which will be marketed at the end of 2022 in the United States, in Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands. The range will expand in the following years, as will the target countries.
Developed by VinFast on a specific platform and designed by the Turinese design office Pininfarina, the e35 and e36 models are large SUVs. The Vietnamese manufacturer has made every effort to tick all the boxes: consensual style, V-shaped light signature to better identify the brand, large 15.4-inch central screen inside the passenger compartment and very high capacity batteries (90 and 110 kilowatt-hours) to ensure a range of over 500 kilometers.
Agreements have been made with renowned equipment manufacturers (Bosch, ZF, Faurecia). Chinese, Taiwanese or Israeli battery or electrical system suppliers have been approached “Taking care not to depend on a single source or technology”. VinFast has hired specialists at Tesla, Toyota or Nissan and recruited Michael Lohscheller, the former boss of the manufacturer Opel, to run its activities.
The brand, which does not provide production targets or prices – the characteristics of the e35 and e36, however, suggest prices above 30,000 euros – deviates from the strategy of the Chinese firms MG or Aiways, which target the heart of the European electricity market with aggressive prices. “VinFast will be top-of-the-range cars with top-notch equipment, but at the right price”, assures Thomas Chrétien, the company’s marketing director for Europe.
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