Vinfast plans to expand into Europe and offer its first cars to its customers this spring.

The Vietnamese car brand may not be the best known among Norwegians, but it could quickly become a relevant candidate for the next electric car purchase.

Next year, Vinfast will launch two electric car models in Europe and North America. They started their operations in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands. They have already hired collaborators in these countries, to write the French press agency AFP.

Plans to launch two models in Europe

Vinfast plans to launch the VF e35 and VF e36 models in March next year. The e35 is a 4.75 meter long SUV with a range of up to 500 kilometers. It has a 90 kilowatt-hour battery, according to a Vietnamese website for automobile testing.

It will have four-wheel drive, a total engine power of 300 kilowatts and a torque of up to 640 Newton meters. A simpler model with a 150 kilowatt and 320 newton meter motor is also planned.

The VF e36 is a 5.12 meter long SUV with a range of up to 550 kilometers. The battery must have a capacity of 106 kilowatt hours. Here too, the engine power must be 300 kilowatts and the car must have four-wheel drive.

Must be autonomous

Both cars are marketed as equipped with the autonomous driving option. It is unclear how mature the system is or whether it is in fact an advanced driver assistance system. Information we find on Vietnamese websites suggests it’s the latter standard, but it should also be possible to get the car with an expanded sensor package including lidar, 14 cameras and hardware based on Nvidia Orin for autonomous driving functions.

On its own websites, Vinfast advertises that the system is based on artificial intelligence and machine learning with data from real driving. In February, they obtained permission to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in California.

Their cars also have the possibility of software updates via the Internet.

Global ambitions

Vinfast has had global ambitions since its founding in 2017. Vinfast is part of Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private company, owned by the country’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong. The start-up bought several automobile factories from General Motors in Vietnam and has been delivering cars since 2019.

In 2020, Vinfast sold around 30,000 cars, according to AFP. The VF e34 model should have been reserved by around 25,000 people, writes the press agency.

We asked Vinfast for more details on the European launch, but at the time of writing we have not received a response to our request.

The cars can be ordered in Vietnam from September and deliveries will begin in February. Prices have not yet been announced. Cars sold in Europe and the United States will be produced in Vietnam.