Does the VinFast VF7 Electric SUV Have What it Takes to Compete in the Indian Market
Premium electric SUVs to challenge Mahindra & Mahindra and BYD: VinFast to venture into India.
According to a report, the Vietnamese electric car maker, VinFast, will enter the country with two premium electric SUVs, taking the challenge of its homegrown Mahindra & Mahindra and BYD from China that had already established itself in the third-largest automobile market in the world.
As for the company, VinFast displayed its VF6 and VF7 SUVs in New Delhi for the India Auto Show, and it is seeking to attract consumers to its electric vehicles while it helps India fulfill its goals to eliminate carbon emissions on a net basis, VinFast's Asia CEO Pham Sanh Chau said.
"We are shifting our focus to India - our next growth frontier," Chau said during a briefing for reporters.
VinFast, listed on the Nasdaq, considers North America and Vietnam as its home markets but is pushing aggressively in other regions. But the carmaker has been reporting increasingly mounting losses as EV demand slows down.
Electric models accounted for around 2.5% of the more than 4 million vehicles sold in India last year. The government, which wants to reach 30% by 2030, is working on a programme to attract EV makers.
VinFast said last year it would invest $500 million over five years for building a car and battery factory, now under construction in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and launching new car models.
The factory will have an initial capacity of 50,000 cars a year and can be scaled up to 250,000 based on demand, Chau said, adding the company is appointing dealers in India and studying investments in setting up charging infrastructure.
As a matter of fact, similar to Tesla, VinFast asked the Indian government to waive a 100 per cent import tax for completely built electrical vehicles so it can start sales even as it works towards completion of the factory. Domestics resisted that.
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