Vietnam’s VinFast beats Musk to the punch with Made-in-India EVs

VinFast on Monday officially inaugurated its electric vehicle (EV) assembly plant at the SIPCOT Industrial Park in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, India.

This milestone marks a major step in VinFast’s global expansion, reinforcing the company’s long-term commitment to the world’s third-largest automobile market and underscoring VinFast’s confidence in India’s strategic role in the future of the global EV industry.

VinFast Tamil Nadu is the company’s third operational plant and the fifth project in its global manufacturing network. As the first VinFast facility inaugurated outside Vietnam, it demonstrates both the brand’s global vision and its capacity to deliver large-scale projects.

With a total area of 400 acres, the plant is equipped with state-of-the-art production lines meeting world-class standards, featuring advanced automation and cutting-edge technologies. The complex houses multiple workshops, including Body Shop, Paint Shop, Assembly Shop, Quality Control Center, and a Logistics Hub. It also includes an auxiliary cluster for local contractors, which is expected to expand in the coming years.

At full capacity, the plant will create 3,000-3,500 direct jobs for local workers, along with thousands of indirect jobs in the supply chain ecosystem. This will help boost socio-economic development in Tamil Nadu, positioning the state as a manufacturing hub for India and a potential EV capital of South Asia in the near future. In its initial phase, VinFast Tamil Nadu will focus on assembling two premium electric SUV models: the VF 7 and VF 6. The plant’s starting capacity is 50,000 vehicles per year, scalable up to 150,000 units annually to meet rising market demand.

With the launch of the Tamil Nadu plant, VinFast moves closer to its 2025 sales target of 200,000 vehicles and its long-term production goal of 1 million vehicles per year by 2030.

Inputs from PTI