Vinfast is about a month old in the Philippines since their public launch, offering four EV models, a variety of e-scooters and an e-bike. They haven’t made their prices public yet, but they definitely have our attention.
To get to know them better, they invited us to their headquarters in Hanoi, Vietnam to get a glimpse of the company and the VinGroup as a whole.
A little introduction
VinFast is part of VinGroup, which started off as Technocom Group, founded in 1993 in Ukraine by Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong. Fast forward 31 years and it is the largest private conglomerate in Vietnam. VinFast was formed in 2017, initially making vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE) and in 2022 decided to concentrate on EV production.
The VinGroup has interests in automobile and motorcycle production, public transportation, commercial and residential real estate, hospitality, amusement parks, private education, medical institutions, and even IT.
Not surprisingly, wehen we arrived in Hanoi, we were booked at a resort owned by their sister company, VinPearl. The VinPearl Resort and Spa in Ha Long is one of the smaller luxury resorts owned and operated by VinPearl, which operates 35 hotels in Vietnam.
Vehicle manufacturing
The next day, we headed to VinFast HQ at the Dinh Vu Industrial Park in Hai Phong, 120-km east of Hanoi. For a brand that's only seven years old, this 335 hectare facility is quite impressive.
The first facility we were shown was the e-scooter plant, which has a floor area of 64,000 square meters, this is where they manufacture a variety of electric scooters and an e-bike. They project to be able to produce roughly 250,000 e-scooters annually.
Next, we went to the their automotive manufacturing. We first visited their Press Shop, a 50,000 square meter facility where they cut and stamp sheet metal into body panels.
After that we went to the Body Shop where the body panels that come from the Press Shop are put together either by different welding techniques or sealant, all performed by robots. This facility can create components for 48 vehicles per hour. These then make their way to the 25,000 square meter Paint Shop which has an 800 vehicle per day capacity.
Then came the General Assembly Shop, and this is pretty much where the painted body is mated with all the components that make it a car, seats and the rest of the interior, windscreens, the sub-frame with the front wheel assembly and EV control components, electric motor, rear suspension assembly, and finally the battery gets fitted to the underside of the vehicle.
VinFast also builds their electric motors in-house and has a machining shop to build components or parts for the EV’s and e-scooters. They also have a Supplier Park, where companies who are part of the supply chain can, and have set up their offices and manufacturing making it easier to get parts straight to the assembly line.
Test drive
After the factory tour, we went to their test track to test drive their lineup, along with the models which will be available in here in the Philippines, the VFe34, VF5, VF7 and VF9. We didn't really have enough time to get some in depth driving impressions, but they did perform as well as expected for their categories.
The VinGroup
On our last full day, our hosts took us on a tour of the VinGroup ecosystem, we got to see their residential projects called VinHomes Oceanpark, a self-contained community which essentially was an upscale residential real estate development with very big man made “Ocean” with sand, located conveniently next to the VinCom Mega Mall, their chain of malls (under VinCom Retail), and this was next to the sprawling campus of VinUniversity. VinHomes has developed 29 areas in the country and has over 470,000 residents. There were also many parking spaces with V-Green EV charging stations, a company set up by VinGroup which focuses on charging infrastructure.
There’s also VinBus, their passenger transportation brand which pioneered the first electric bus routes in Vietnam.
Vinmec is their non-profit academic medical system, in conjunction with Institute of Health Sciences - VinUniversity. They currently have 7 hospitals and 4 international standard multidisciplinary clinics. Vinschool is the largest non-profit private education system in Vietnam, Kindergarten – Highschool, with 50 institutions in Vietnam.
It also makes sense that VinGroup would also be into technology and AI, VinAI specializes in artificial intelligence research and developing AI applications for the global market. In line with this is VinBigData, which develops Virtual assistants, Chatbots/Voicebots, Automated customer service call centers, AI Camera security surveillance systems, AI solutions in medical image diagnosis, Big data mining, processing and analysis solutions among many others.
VinBrain is their medical technology company that develops AI-powered products for disease diagnosis, treatment, and hospital data management. VinCSS is their cyber-security company which provides comprehensive security solutions in the digital environment. VinHMS is the group’s software manufacturing company, which specializes in optimizing business operations of enterprises in the tourism and hospitality industry.
VinITIS is one of VinGroup’s oldest tech companies, it stands for Information Technology Solutions and Transmission Infrastructure, one of the main functions are Core Information Technology Services, Transmission Services for the operations of the entire Group and related activities.
As for VinPearl, their tourism-resort-entertainment brand, there’s also VinWonders amusement parks, with 2 conservation parks for semi-wild animals, 4 golf courses and even a golf course in Australia.
To say VinGroup is a big company is an understatement, and knowing that they have seriously invested in VinFast’s manufacturing, technology, software and supply chain shows their commitment to the brand.
VinFast has reached where they are now in a shorter amount of time than many of their competitors, here’s hoping they take the time to make sure to learn lessons from other companies’ growing pains.
VinFast may just be new to our country, but a visit to their home country shows why they have such big ambitions for the rest of the world.