By Phuong Nguyen
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast plans to open a car assembly plant in India by the end of June and another one in Indonesia in October, its chief said on Thursday, as the company shifts its focus to Asia.
The loss-making startup had initially planned to focus on America for its foreign sales, but slow progress in the United States, even before growing uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs, pushed the company to change strategy.
“In the near future, apart from the Vietnamese market, we will focus more on Indonesia, India, and the Philippines markets,” Pham Nhat Vuong told shareholders of VinFast’s parent company Vingroup.
“At the moment, VinFast is not planning to boost sales in the United States, Canada, and the European Union due to high logistics fee,” he added.
VinFast, founded by Vietnam’s richest man Pham Nhat Vuong in 2017 and which turned to making fully electric vehicles in 2022, had planned to build a $4 billion plant in North Carolina. However, this has been delayed by three years to 2028.
“The plant in the United States is currently on hold… as we wait for the right time and market signals,” Vuong told the meeting.
Last year, VinFast and the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu agreed to work towards an investment of up to $2 billion, with an intended commitment of $500 million for the first five years of the project, with the plant expected to have an annual production capacity of up to 150,000 vehicles.
In July last year VinFast also broke ground on an assembling factory in Indonesia, which Vuong on Thursday said would be operational in October, confirming plans announced earlier.
Vuong said the company aimed to sell around 200,000 units in Vietnam this year, compared with around 97,000 units sold in 2024.
The company did not give a sales breakdown for each market. But overseas sales accounted for around 10% last year, according to a filing last year.
Since its inception in 2017 up until November last year, VinFast has received capital injections totalling around $17 billion from Vingroup, its affiliates, and founder Vuong, according to an announcement last year.
At Thursday’s meeting, Vuong, also chairman of Vingroup, said he expected the listing of the hospitality unit Vinpearl to be completed next month.
Vuong also announced plans to develop renewable energy and liquefied natural gas power plants with a total capacity of 25.5 gigawatts, including a 4.8-gigawatt LNG plant in the north.
Vingroup, once a real estate and retail conglomerate, has grown to become one of Vietnam’s biggest firms with a market capitalisation of $8.62 billion.
(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Writing by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Martin Petty)
