Vietnam’s VinFast shows first EV

The ambitious Vietnamese automotive start-up VinFast has revealed its first battery electric vehicle undergoing testing on the streets of the national capital Hanoi.

As yet un-named, the compact EV is scheduled to be launched at the Los Angeles auto show in November (if it happens) ahead of a July 2021 start of production.

The EV is being targeted at the US, but it could also come here in the future, as VinFast has identified Australia as a market it wants to enter.

VinFast has released little detail about its new EV. It has confirmed it uses LG Chem battery cells and claims it will achieve up to 500km between recharges.

The Italian styling house Pininfarina has been involved in the design, while the German automotive engineering specialist EDAG has helped develop what’s under the skin.

There’s also a local connection to VinFast and this car, as a heap of Australian engineers have been scooped up to work for the company both in Vietnam and at a new engineering centre set up in Melbourne last December.

A subsidiary of VinGroup, Vietnam’s largest conglomerate, and a personal ambition of billionaire owner Pham Nhat Vuong, VinFast has previously made headlines for employing David Beckham to launch its conventional BMW-based Lux A2.0 sedan and Lux SA2.0 SUV at the 2018 Paris motor show.

While we’re looking at the EV in disguise, there are some sketches in the public arena that might give us some hints at what’s to come.

One was issued when the Vinfast deal with EDAG was announced in May 2018.

The other is by Italdesign and was the winner of a public design competition in Vietnam in March 2018.