VinFast fast-tracks second EV plant in Vietnam

Vietnamese EV maker VinFast has announced plans to build a second plant in Vietnam at a breakneck pace – its fifth globally – to double the production capacity of its VF 3 and VF 5 models.

A new $287.5 million factory in Ha Tinh province expects to ramp up production capacity in Vietnamese from 300,000 to 600,000 vehicles for both domestic sales and export, Reuters reports.

The pace of the project is at record speed, with the foundation stone already having been laid. Operations are set to begin in July 2025, a mere eight months after the project kicked off. The new plant should create nearly 6,000 new jobs for locals, which the company said could later increase to 15,000.

VinFast says it is ramping up construction due to the increase in demand for small and medium-size EVs in Vietnam and beyond. “Demand in international markets is also growing rapidly, so the construction of an additional electric car factory in Ha Tinh will create a solid foundation for an important and explosive development phase of VinFast in the coming time,” said Nguyen Viet Quang, deputy chairman and CEO of VinFast’s parent company Vingroup, at the ceremony, according to the report.

Electrek’s Take

Of course, while this sounds good on paper, VinFast is still far off from fully utilizing it existing plant in Vietnam, with a production capacity of 300,000 vehicles per year. In the first nine months of 2024, VinFast delivered fewer than 44,773 cars worldwide according to Reuters. This year’s target is 80,000 vehicles.

VinFast, which launched five EVs in 2022, has had rather sluggish sales so far, with fewer than 35,000 EVs sold last year. Things this year have picked up, but it’s still unlikely to achieve its annual target, which has already been brought down from 100,000 vehicles, this year. Its announced US factory has been pushed back from 2025 to 2028, with VinFast focusing on new factories in India and Indonesia, both of which are slated to come into operation in 2025.

Photos: courtesy of VinFast

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