Understanding VinFast: A newcomer automotive brand, backed by Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate

Until earlier this year, you might not have heard of VinFast. Until a few years ago, almost nobody had. The company is young by global automotive standards, and Vietnam is not a country traditionally associated with large-scale automobile manufacturing. But after spending a week inside the company’s operations in Vietnam – touring its manufacturing plant, speaking with executives, and seeing the systems firsthand – it becomes clear that VinFast is not a short-term experiment. It is a long-term industrial bet backed by one of Vietnam’s most powerful corporate ecosystems. Here’s a deep dive into VinFast and why it’s a manufacturer we all need to take seriously.

What is VinFast?

Understanding VinFast requires understanding Vingroup’s ecosystem approach. Vingroup, VinFast’s parent company, is central to understanding the scale and confidence behind the automaker. Founded in the late 1990s by billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, Vingroup began in real estate before expanding into nearly every major consumer-facing sector in Vietnam. Its residential arm, Vinhomes, develops large-scale integrated townships and smart cities that now house lakhs of people. Vinmec, the group’s healthcare network, operates international-standard hospitals and research facilities. Vinschool and VinUni form the education pillar, designed to groom talent within Vietnam, with VinUni partnering globally with institutions such as Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania. Beyond these, Vingroup’s portfolio extends into tourism, retail, AI research, data services and renewable energy – an ecosystem intentionally constructed to create domestic self-reliance while advancing Vietnam’s technological and industrial capabilities. The strategy is clear: build not just a product, but a consumer loop where a citizen can live, study, receive healthcare, and commute without leaving the Vingroup umbrella.

With this foundation, VinFast isn’t a standalone startup operating on venture capitalists; it is an extension of a national-scale corporate machine with deep financial backing and a long-term mandate to position Vietnam alongside established industrial economies. As for VinFast, it currently manufactures passenger EVs, electric scooters, e-bikes, and electric buses, with its Hai Phong manufacturing plant serving as its primary production hub.

The company produced its first vehicles in 2019, in partnership with BMW, which licensed its platform and engine technology for VinFast’s first sedan and SUV models, the LUX A2.0 and LUX SA2.0. These were based on the 5 Series (F10) sedan and X5 (E70) SUV and used BMW’s 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine (N20). VinFast also used BMW’s production technology and worked with partners like ZF, Magna, and AVL to adapt the technology for its vehicles, allowing the Vietnamese company to develop and bring its cars to market rapidly. This had obviously benefited them a lot, as even on the current trip, we saw a lot of these older models out on Vietnamese roads.

But in 2022, it shifted fully to electric mobility, discontinuing internal-combustion products entirely, citing sustainability as one of its main priorities. Today, it’s an established car maker with 40 per cent market share in the Vietnamese market. It has also started sales in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and, most recently, India.

Hai Phong manufacturing plant

Founded in 2017, VinFast expanded rapidly, with the plant being built in just 21 months and as of 2025, it is operating at an industrial scale, while another plant is under construction in the Ha Tinh region.

Walking through the Hai Phong plant reveals an operation built with the scale and automation typically seen in more established markets. The stamping shop is fully automated, producing up to 20 parts per minute. The body shop is roughly 98 per cent automated and uses about 850 robots, welding an average of 4,500 structural points into each car. A body frame moves forward every two minutes, with line output averaging around 30 frames per hour.

Further down the line, the general assembly hall spans around 250,000 square metres, with the line stretching nearly four kilometres. Around 3,000 workers oversee systems that achieve up to 90 per cent automation in key areas such as interior assembly, battery integration and chassis build-up. At full pace, the plant can complete roughly 38 vehicles per hour, supporting an annual capacity of about 300,000 units.

The electric scooters – a significant category in Southeast Asian mobility are another pillar of VinFast, with close to 10 models currently in the lineup. The two plants combined can assemble around 300,000 per year when the second plant becomes active in early 2026. The company says future line expansion could push total output toward one million units annually. At present, VinFast manufactures around 65 per cent of components domestically, and targets 80 per cent localisation by 2026.

The numbers

Sales are growing. In the third quarter of 2025, VinFast delivered 38,195 vehicles globally – a 74 per cent increase year-on-year and 7 per cent up quarter-on-quarter. Across the first nine months of the year, cumulative deliveries reached 110,362 units, up 149 per cent year-on-year. Electric motorbike and e-bike deliveries also surged, reaching 120,052 units in Q3, up 535 per cent year-on-year and 73 per cent quarter-on-quarter. For the first nine months, total deliveries amounted to 234,536 units, representing a 489 per cent increase. Revenue for the quarter rose 47 per cent to approximately 18.1 trillion VND (~ Rs 6135 crore).

However, a lot of that has been put back into building the brand – scaling multiple factories, entering new markets, supporting early-stage customer fleets and investing in research, warranty systems and localisation.

The takeaway

VinFast is attempting something remarkable: entering the automotive industry on a global scale rather than growing into it incrementally. The approach mirrors strategies seen in the tech sector more than in legacy automotive timelines – rapid expansion, high capital expenditure and a focus on market presence before long-term margins stabilise. Whether the strategy succeeds will depend on market adoption, customer perception and VinFast’s ability to balance scale with cost efficiency. But after spending time inside the operation, one conclusion is difficult to ignore: VinFast is no longer an unfamiliar name. And based on its pace, it doesn’t intend to remain a newcomer for long.