Made in Melbourne: The EV set to crack the USA

Former Holden engineers and facilities including the famous Lang Lang proving ground will play a key role in a bold bid by a Vietnamese car company to crack the US electric vehicle market.

VinFast confirmed the purchase of the 827 hectare proving ground 90-minutes drive south-east of the Victorian capital Melbourne from GM Holden last week.

Established by Vietnam’s richest man Pham Nhat Vuong in 2017, VinFast intends to launch an EV that is currently under development. It is planned to go to the US market in 2021.

We’ve previously reported on that EV here.

While VinFast is headquartered in Hai Phong, Vietnam, it established a research and development centre in Melbourne in December 2019 and has hired hundreds of engineers from the local car industry.

Australia’s last three vehicle manufacturers – Ford, Holden and Toyota – closed their assembly plants in 2016-17 and General Motors announced this year the Holden brand is being axed altogether.

VinFast has purchased Lang Lang after extensive negotiations in the wake of the Holden closure announcement. 

It intends to commence operations on the site as soon as October, pending the completion of financial transactions and the restrictions applied by the COVID pandemic.

VinFast has already confirmed in the wake of the Lang Lang purchase it intends to hire up to new 80 new staff as work ramps up in the coming months.

Established in 1958, Lang Lang’s 44km of test roads includes a 4.7km high-speed oval and a 5.5km ride and handling course. The site also includes an emissions laboratory. It was most recently upgraded in 2018.

As part of the sale agreement, VinFast has committed to maintaining the protection of the local environment, primitive vegetation, and natural landscapes and continue to organise community land-care activities.

VinFast has also agreed to host Holden car clubs day and former Holden employees “to honour Holden’s legacy and contributions to the automotive industry”.

While Australia is not yet a confirmed market for VinFast to sell its new models, the importance of the Australian product development facilities have been underlined.

“Research and develop new car models, including ICE and EV models, are considered to be our main focus of VinFast Australia at the moment,” VinFast deputy CEO Ms Nguyen Thi Van Anh said in a recent interview. 

There is no doubt VinFast is taking in a huge challenge with its US plans. The market is one of the most competitive and expensive in the world to enter. At this stage, only Tesla has successfully made inroads as an EV brand.

“Electric cars in particular and environment-friendly vehicles in general are going to be essential traffic trends in the future, especially when the world is now facing and solving serious environmental issues,” Nguyen said.

“It is expected that the US market will require 18.7 million electric cars in 2030, occupying around 7 percent in a total of 259 million cars in this country. The electric cars’ potential in the US market is enormous.

“Additionally, the US market is one of the most difficult markets in the world with lots of requirements and quality standards. With the orientation of producing high-class cars, equipped with the world’s leading technology, VinFast believes that the EV models will be welcomed by US consumers.

“This will be an important premise to expand [VinFast] to other markets in the future.”

VinFast’s Australian division boss Kevin Yardley – a 25-year Holden veteran – was bullish about the capabilities Melbourne offered VinFast.

 “For us it is a fantastic opportunity to be able to work and contribute to the automotive industry,” he said.

“On the other hand, it’s particularly significant to us, as we know we are not the cheapest place in the world to set up an engineering technical centre. So this is a bold, exciting plan by VinFast and we are absolutely committed to making it successful.

“Currently all the talent, expertise and facilities are still intact in Melbourne … to develop vehicles from the ground up,” he said. “Local engineers have developed cars for all markets around the world including Europe, US, Middle East and Asia.”