Shock! VinFast’s VF Wild electric pickup was designed in Melbourne!

The VinFast VF Wild electric pickup concept unveiled at the 2024 CES tech extravaganza in Las Vegas this morning was designed in Australia.

The sharp-lined VF Wild ute is the work of an independent design studio in Melbourne called GoMotiv, as is the VF 3 mini electric SUV rolled out alongside it at CES.

GoMotiv was only established in January 2021 and has since completed a series of projects for the Vietnamese electric car start-up leading up to its CES starring role.

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It has also contributed to the design of the VF 5 and VF 6 EVs and the initial design concept of the VF 7 mid-size electric SUV.

GoMotiv’s involvement with VinFast has been very low profile to this point, unlike designs completed by the Italian design houses Pininfarina and Torino, which have been heavily promoted.

Both GoMotiv studio director Robert Thorpe and creative director Justin Thompson were present in Las Vegas for the unveil and plan to use the attention generated to promote the studio’s capabilities to the automotive industry, especially in the Asia-Pacific and China.

“We hope when this product is unveiled at CES people go ‘wow’ and it creates a lot of interest,” said Thompson.

“Our vision is to be an alternative to the Italian studios. We are in the Asia-Pacific region and there are OEMs and start-ups here we can help.”

Added Thorpe: “There is a lot of activity happening with electric vehicles now allowing new entrants from a brand perspective to come in.

“It means the market is right for us … the timing is right.”

Thorpe was the key player in the establishment of GoMotiv, moving from a 20-year career at GM-Holden here and overseas to the Outer Space design and engineering consultancy which backed the establishment of the studio.

Thompson, another GM-Holden veteran who worked at the Salmon Street studio until its last days in October 2020, was the first to join Thorpe on the roster.

“I always had the idea Australia needed an independent design studio,” said Thorpe. “There are a lot of excellent independent engineering houses here but there was no-one doing the role of an independent design studio.

“The vision was to have an independent studio in Australia providing OEM quality work to global companies … you then have the ability to provide OEM quality design services to Australian clients, which might not have been available moving forward.”

GoMotiv launched during COVID lockdowns with Thorpe and Thompson working from their homes. It is now based in inner city Abbotsford and has 23 staff sourced from GM-H and Ford as well as internationally from auto companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren.

It is one of only a handful automotive design capabilities in Australia along with Ford’s Asia-Pacific facility at Broadmeadows, the smaller Toyota design centre and the Walkinshaw Automotive Group division.

Under the one roof at GoMotiv there are exterior and interior creative teams, a digital sculpting department and studio engineers.

While VinFast is its biggest client, GoMotiv has done other work including the interior bits requiring a rework in swapping the Ford F-150 pick-up from left- to right-hand drive locally.

Its breadth of skills means GoMotiv can take a vehicle from thought bubble to finished production design, working in co-operation with a vehicle’s engineering supplier.

It has already done that with the tiny VF 3 and is in the process of doing that with the production version of VinFast’s Wild pickup.

Not all design studios can do that and Thompson says it’s a key reason GoMotiv has built a relationship with VinFast.

“We will surface all the exterior and interior components of the vehicle, but there are manufacturing and engineering criteria we need to bake into those surfaces – it’s really complex.

“We’ve been fortunate we have all worked for OEMs … everyone can do a concept but to take a design into production is a different set of skills. The relationship with VinFast started with the invitation from a design executive to participate in a competitive 2D ‘sketch blitz’. GoMotiv missed out then but next time it was successful.

“It was very, very difficult but we knew once we had the foot in the door we could make a go of it,” said Thorpe.

GoMotiv is yet another Australian involvement for VinFast, which created and then shut an engineering outpost in Port Melbourne between 2019 and 2021.

The company also purchased the former Holden Lang Lang proving ground in 2020 but had it back on-sale inside 12 months, although it has yet to find a buyer.

Thorpe and Thompson are conscious of VinFast’s past history in Australia, but are confident of their position.

“I can’t say enough about the team we are working with at VinFast, they are awesome ,” said Thorpe.

“What they are trying to do and the pace they are going at is insane – in a good way. It is amazing.”

VinFast was established in 2017 by Vietnam’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong, who is head of the giant VinGroup.

He has announced aggressive expansion plans for VinFast and launched into California in 2023 with the large VF 8 using a Tesla-like direct to customer retail model.

The company is also now publicly traded on the US NASDAQ and has plans for an assembly plant in North Carolina to open in 2025.

However, slow sales have prompted a swap to a hybrid sales model that also includes independent dealers for its expansion beyond California. The VF 8 has also been panned in US media reviews.

According to a Reuters report, VinFast sold around 13,000 units globally in the second and third quarter of 2023, more than half of them to an affiliate company owned by its founder.

It has yet to announce any plans to sell vehicles in Australia.