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Europe in sight:
CEO
Le Thi Thu Thuy
wants to conquer the European market
Photo: Denise Truscello/Getty Images for VinFast
The Vietnamese electric car manufacturer Vinfast is pushing into Europe and is focusing on Germany in its expansion.
The newcomer plans to open 25 stores in the continent's largest car market.
Overall, company boss
Le Thi Thu Thuy
(47) wants to operate at least 50 stores in Europe.
Of these, 20 are to be built in France and five in the Netherlands, the company announced this week at the European premiere of its all-electric VF 8 and VF 9 models.
Vinfast is one of a number of young Asian car companies that are just about to make the leap to Europe.
Some Chinese newcomers such as Nio, XPeng or BYD have also announced their advance.
Last year, around 9.7 million new cars were sold across Europe - the manufacturers from Asia want to play an important role, especially in the foreseeable growing electric car segment.
At Vinfast, the rollout plans are now becoming more concrete.
The first confirmed locations in Germany are Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Oberhausen and Hamburg.
In France, stores are planned in Paris, Marseille, Nantes, Rennes, Nice, Montpellier, Aix en Provence and Metz, and in the Netherlands Amsterdam has been set.
The showrooms will vary in size and offer either sales only or both sales and services, Vinfast said.
The exact locations were selected according to the existing infrastructure and connection to a potential electric vehicle community.
The start-up, which was only founded in 2017, has not yet delivered a car in Europe.
But Vinfast has ambitious growth plans and already has branches in Germany, France and the Netherlands as well as others in the USA and Canada.
"The announcement of Vinfast stores in the French, German and Dutch markets confirms Vinfast's seriousness and commitment to Europe," says Thuy, who is also vice-president of parent Vingroup.
"Vinfast isn't just here to sell cars. We're here to inspire change and accelerate the transition to electric vehicles for the good of the environment."
Vinfast is apparently looking to Eisenach and Pasewalk
In addition, the start-up is still looking for a production facility in Europe.
So far, Vinfast has only manufactured in Vietnam.
It had already become known in January that the brand was aiming for production in Germany.
The first cars are expected to roll off the assembly line in 2025.
So far there have been rumors about the Opel plant in Eisenach in Thuringia, but now a second location is apparently in the running.
According to media reports, Vinfast is in talks with the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania entrepreneurs' association about building a plant in Pasewalk.
There, the Berlin-Szczecin industrial park comes into question.
However, this is much closer to Stettin in Poland than to Berlin, where competitor Tesla opened its plant in Grünheide this year.
Vinfast itself is still keeping a low profile when looking for a work.
"Talks are being held with various federal states and associations," says a spokesman.
The company has not yet confirmed a location.
Only that Thuringia has had close ties with Vietnam for years.
Plans for a production facility in the USA are further advanced.
There Vinfast wants to produce 150,000 electric vehicles per year in North Carolina.
Thuy announced in March that production should start there in mid-2024.
At that time, Thuy had taken over the business from former Opel boss
Michael Lohscheller
(53), who had surprisingly vacated his post shortly before after just a few months at the Vinfast leadership and is now working for the scandalous American start-up Nikola.
Vinfast initially started manufacturing cars with internal combustion engines in 2017, with production scheduled to end this year.
In January, the brand presented a complete electric fleet with five vehicles of different sizes.
The Vietnamese work with numerous large European automobile manufacturers and suppliers, such as BMW, Siemens, Bosch, Continental and ThyssenKrupp.
The electric cars should be priced well below the comparable Tesla models.
In Europe, Vinfast wants to sell its first car at the end of 2022.
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