Vietnamese firm in $2-bn EV drive for India

India Foray

• Factory coming up in Tamil Nadu
• Plans to transform Thootukudi into a EV production hub
• Company aims to sell in 50 markets globally
• Building a $4-bn EV factory in North Carolina, USA
• Plans to build a $400-mn EV factory in Indonesia

Hanoi: Vietnamese automaker VinFast says it plans to spend up to $2 billion to build an electric vehicle factory in India, the world’s third-largest auto market by sales. The factory in southern India’s Tamil Nadu State will be the company’s first foray into India and follows VinFast’s launch of sales in the United States and other major markets.

The plan highlights the company’s commitment to a “vision of a zero-emission transportation future,” Tran Mai Hoa, the company’s deputy CEO of sales and marketing, said in a statement.

VinFast said it is committing $500 million in the first phase of construction and plans to transform the region around port city of Thootukudi into a “first-class electric vehicle production hub.”

The factory will have a capacity to roll out 150,000 cars annually, it said. It gave few other details. VinFast is part of Vingroup, a sprawling conglomerate that began as an instant noodle company in Ukraine in the 1990s that was founded and is run by Vietnam’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong.