Vietnam's indigenous carmaker VinFast to stop making ICE vehicles in a year

Vietnam's indigenous carmaker VinFast will put an end to producing its combustion-engine vehicles of the end of this year, which is just two-and-a-half years after the first such vehicles rolled off its northern Vietnam assembly lines. The carmaker is planning to ramp up global sales of its electric SUVs with plans for EV factories in the US and Germany.

The company plans to focus solely on electric vehicles because it presents it with a big opportunity in a nascent market, the vice chairwoman of Vingroup JSC - the parent company of VinFast, Le Thi Thu Thuy said. "The field of electric cars is still in the early stages of development, the level of competition is not too fierce and there is still room for breakthroughs for new brands," she said.

She added that VinFast is facing an international market with the potential of more than one billion gas-powered cars that will be replaced by electric cars in the near future. In November last year at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the company unveiled two electric SUVs - the VF e35 and VF e36. It will begin accepting global preorders for these two models at the ongoing annual CES technology conference from January 6.

The carmaker will introduce five electric SUV models at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas this week ahead of its IPO offering in the US in the second half of the year. VinFast plans to deliver EVs in California, Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands at the end of this year.

The company's upcoming US EV factory will have a capacity to produce 250,000 vehicles a year, and will also include battery and electric bus plants. In the first phase, the company plans to invest $1 billion to $1.5 billion.

(with inputs from Bloomberg)

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