Vietnam’s national automaker Vinfast has appointed famed Italian car designing company Pininfarina to develop the nation’s first sedan and SUV models. The decision was based on the best design concept, of which 20 submissions were made by various world-famous design houses.
To exercise transparency, Vinfast asked customers to vote for submissions which they thought were “in line with world trends” and fitting with “Vietnamese tastes and demand.” Nearly 62,000 participants voted in the contest, and the sedan and SUV concepts by Pininfarina received the most votes. It’s clear as day why Pininfarina won the bid, considering the level of originality seen in the admittedly impressive sketches.
“The direct involvement of Pininfarina, one of the world’s biggest design brands, is expected to bring modern beauty while retaining Vietnamese identity to the first two Vinfast car models,” said Quang Viet Nguyen, vice president of Vingroup, the country’s leading property developer.
Vinfast hopes to be the top car manufacturer in ASEAN, making 500,000 cars per annum by year 2025. It expects to produce 100,000 to 200,000 vehicles per year in the first phase, with a range that will include a sedan, seven-seater SUV and electric-powered motorcycles. The company aims to launch its first car by September 2019.
To accelerate growth, Vinfast plans to purchase blueprints of car engines and primary mechanical systems from top European and American designers. Vingroup has also appointed James B. DeLuca, the former executive vice president of General Motors, as its general manager. DeLuca will be in charge of the construction, operation and development of the automaker’s SUV and sedan segments.
What do you think of this announcement and targets, folks?
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Thats how you create a brand to appeal the masses ! way to go .. may be we buy some Viet cars now !!
Oh wait we have Gila cars or is Geely !!
P1Geely says: Bring it ON!
Proton talk big about their 500,000 sales. How to lawan Pininfarina designed car? These are the guys who design for Ferrari wor.
I wonder how Proton will compete with Vinfacs and other Korean car makers. Just look how sexy this car is!
Hyundai matrix oso designed by Pinin yet sales like shiet. Design like shiet. Volvo designed Boyue 1 year sales outsold matrix entire lifetime. U jelly?
No car companies can achieve that kind of success in very short time. So good luck with these hypes. We’ve heard of good looking car with small and ancient underhood. Maybe they will take this same path to sell it cheap. Otherwise if they sell it as expensive premium car, those viets will not buy it, foreigners will not buy it. They are not europe where a startup company can achieve success because they got technology around them.
Proton’s design team also have made superb achievements that are 100X better looking than this Pininfarina.
Look at
1) Juara
2) Savvy
3) Tiara
4) Arena
Even top design houses cannot come close to how superb looking the above 4 cars are.
Pininfarina also jeles with our designs
People are dying over there and they got enough money to pay pininfarina? Priorities???
Who says people are dying in Vietnam? I think you are confusing Vietnam with Myanmar. Vietnam is a fast growing country that is growing faster than Malaysia now. There is a fast growing middle class that will be bigger with a larger purchasing power than Malaysia by 2025. The same goes for Philippines and Indonesia. So please do not stereotype countries based on ignorance. Go research more before posting nonsense. Thank you.
Pity those in Wang Kelian MY. So cruel cold blood..
Actually even Myanmar is growing rapidly. If they can rectify the unneccesary world attention for ethnic cleansing, they are expected to be among the biggest economies in ASEAN by the same time. Currently they have hired consultants from Singapore for all their economic growth and they are moving fast forward with growth of between 6 to 8% annually. So we must realise that we will be competing with a much stronger SEA in the next decade. If we dont buck up, we might be much weaker than we are currently only the 3rd biggest economy in SEA.
wkwkwk we are talking about Vietnam, not Myanmar…
And thats there problem with that yhinking there. U think of ASEAN must competing with each other but our leaders r instead trying to integrate and complement ASEAN countries strengths much like EU. We trying to be more union not division.
Malaysian have risk of losing their job to Vietnam given the lower operating cost in Vietnam.
You are confused with Myanmar. Vietnam is so fast growing, that they have overtaken Malaysia already.
All Mat Salleh and China and Japanese companies are investing BILLIONS USD in Vietnam.
They have decided to forget Malaysia because it has too much red tape.
Looks x99 more promising than our jaguh kampung
Yup. Much much better design than anything P2 can dream up, much less make it real.
At least P2 don’t beg for bailouts and help. Even now, 1S to 3S also beg for money
Who says? P2 oso get the same tax & RnD incentives. And oso same plotek during 2008. Without all these u think jepunis lord will still stay here with them? Fat chance!
that dealer not p1…lol
Good design. The sedan looks delicious. But will they able to produce it and price it affordably for vietnamese? The design pointed to expensive price.
Kinda agree, most of the design u can make it very fancy but when come to real version, only 70 % similar
They look like the new Volvos la
On the right track as long as they don’t take the Proton route….
That’s the way Vietnam! We hope one day we’re able to see some Vinfast on our Malaysian roads too! All the best to you! ASEAN FTW!
What about the pricing?
The Vietnam cars will definitely come to Malaysia through AFTA.
Start from rebadge foreign car first, that’s how Japan, Korea, India and China did before manage to built their own car.
Just don’t keep rebadge and end up like Proton
Good luck to them. Some of us may have already heard how Vietnam is becoming the ‘new China’. A lot of foreign companies are shifting manufacturing from China to Vietnam, because costs have risen too much in China. In fact, China themselves may soon have to import a lot of foreign labour, because local labour is too expensive now.
Vietnam has all the right ingredients to become another South Korea. The similarities are many. South Korea knows it too. South Korean companies have invested in Vietnam, like how Japanese companies have invested in Thailand. Even Hyundai-Kia Group do quite well in Vietnam, even when they struggle in other ASEAN countries (except perhaps, the Philippines).
Although the prospects are positive for Vinfast, I am not holding my breath. So far, there has not been a single, truly successful ‘home grown’ ASEAN car company. Vinfast should know that if they are to survive in the next decade, they must have some sort of autonomous plan, hybrid or EV technology, export presence and all the while, they must hold their own and distinguish themselves against the 100 + Chinese car companies who are also trying to make it big in the automotive world.
Ideally, Vinfast would like to become the next Hyundai-Kia, but the odds are just as likely for them to become the next Daewoo (i.e. GM Korea). Again, I wish them all the best. Vinfast is most welcome to export to Malaysia too, as Malaysia has the largest sedan and SUV market in ASEAN. Vietnam’s new car market is still very small, only about 100,000 units a year, compared to Malaysia (600k), Thailand (900k) and Indonesia (1.1 million).
Correction : Vietnam’s new car market is around 250k units. 100k to 150k are passenger cars, the balance are commercial vehicles.
Very brave nation with intergrity unlike many which sold out their country.
Sold out all cars except the submarines.
Vietnam just imposed strict condotions barring imports so looks like they will go the proton route.
Even the Japanese started that way, and they were even far more aggressive. They didn’t achieve the slingshot they got in economic growth by starting out with free trade. Back in the 50’s they limit car import values to 500,000 dollars. Dollars, not units. So really, the “Proton” route is actually the Japanese route. And because they were the most powerful economy then, everyone in Asia started to follow. In fact Japan still has a strong protection policy for their own automotive industry, even after having involved in, and mastered the industry for 100 years.
Nope, I think they are following South Korea’s initial route. Malaysia increase the excise duty but never barred any imports
It will be a big shame if this vietnam company gets ahead of proton, which started 20 years earlier but still cant produce a good for value car to malaysian.. too much profit taking!!
Agreed. P2 never value for money car. Only reason pipu buy it becoz its cheap.
Vinfast, faster you create your auto with pini. Gee li is waiting impatiently putting your auto in the buying cart.
thats how to launch a brand new car brand…with great modern design…
Hello Honda, hello Toyota, hello Proton….This is what we call as exterior design. If we want to be competitive in the automotive field, we should think out of box and public demand sholud be taken into account.
looks good
Vauxhall..
Such a brave move compared to what we have done in this Southeast Asia. We need Vinfast as a pioneer manufacturing car to compete with others, showing that we are capable of producing world-class cars. By doing so, we at least have home-grown and hopefully affordable cars to purchase. Vote for Vinfast, for Vietnam for your bravery and determination. Hopefully I can see a Vinfast car running on Malaysian streets one day, not in the far-distant future. Wish you success and prosperity.