Vinfast

Vinfast sprang to life in June 2017 when Vingroup broke ground on a $1.5 billion, state-of-the-art manufacturing complex on Cat Hai Island near Haiphong, Vietnam. Within a year, the startup tapped global design houses—Pininfarina, Italdesign, Zagato and Torino Design—inviting more than 60,000 Vietnamese consumers to vote on its first sketches. Its Paris Motor Show debut in October 2018 of the Lux A2.0 sedan and Lux SA2.0 SUV signalled Vietnam’s arrival on the automotive stage, earning industry plaudits and the “A Star is Born” award from AUTOBEST. By 2022 Vinfast had pivoted entirely to electric vehicles, pioneering a battery-leasing scheme and direct-to-consumer subscriptions in its home market. Today its lineup spans city cars and SUVs, from the VF e34 and VF 5 through to the flagship VF 9, sold across North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. A flagship India plant is slated for mid-2025, with Indonesia following by October, anchoring Vinfast’s strategy to triple domestic sales to 200,000 vehicles in 2025 while scaling its “Vietnam to the world” mission.