During his three-day official trip to Vietnam earlier this week, prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was invited to visit Vietnamese automaker VinFast‘s facility at the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park in Hanoi, where he took out the company’s LUX SA2.0 SUV for a short test drive.
The prime minister was accompanied by Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong on the drive. He was also shown the LUX A2.0 sedan and the Fadil city car, Bernama reports.
VinFast, the country’s first automaker, premiered the LUX A2.0 and SA2.0 at the Paris Motor Show last year. Both are based on BMW models, the A2.0 on the F10 5 Series and the SA2.0, on the F15 X5. The two VinFast vehicles are powered by a BMW-sourced N20 2.0 litre four-cylinder petrol engine, in two output tunes – the first being 174 hp at 4,500 to 6,000 rpm and 300 Nm from 1,750 to 4,000 rpm, and the other 228 hp at 5,000 to 6,000 rpm and 350 Nm from 1,750 to 4,500 rpm.
It was previously reported that the LUX A2.0 sedan will get both tunes, while the LUX SA2.0 SUV will only get the 231 PS unit. Both models are equipped with an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. The cars are expected to go on sale in Vietnam this year.
The Fadil, meanwhile, is essentially a rebadged version of the Vauxhall Viva/Opel Karl, and by extension the Chevrolet Spark. Announced in November last year, the Fadil is powered by a 1.4 litre four-cylinder petrol engine delivering 98 hp at 6,200 rpm and 128 Nm of torque at 4,400 rpm, and the mill is paired with a CVT.
Earlier this month, VinFast and FastGo Viet Nam signed an agreement for the automaker to provide 1,500 units of the Fadil for FastGo’s ride-hailing service. The two companies have also agreed to implement the LUX sedan for luxury transport services in the future, according to Viet Nam News.
The company – which is a subsidiary of Vingroup, the largest privately-held conglomerate in Vietnam – has previously stated plans to come up with other vehicles, including an electric car, which will be developed in house in partnership with German engineering firm EDAG, as well as an electric bus with the support of Siemens.
GALLERY: VinFast LUX A2.0
GALLERY: VinFast LUX SA2.0
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Vietnam is so lucky. They can now use “local” BMW.
We Malaysians are unlucky, we got to use China made Malaysian car.
How lucky Vietnam is. Now, everyone can drive “BMW”
To make matters worse, our Malaysian car is RM59k in China. But in Malaysia it is RM123k.
So much for it being a Malaysian car made for Malaysians!
By your logic, if Malaysians are unlucky to get China car then Viet are triple unlucky to pay BMW prices for servicing their ‘national cars’ as pointed out by Aura89. Here we can still service our national cars with Proton prices not BMW prices.
Actually VinFast is bravely trying to do something very state of the art, at user input cost $$$ for very environmental reasons in a very polluted capital or town like every other in the world
Its a big problem, i like the fact that they try to solve the problem locally,
vinfast, rebadged Bmw of asia…
Vietnam use German BMW partner and platform and we use lowest Chinese Geely tech. well done proton!!!!
Well done Proton!!!!!! You gave us Volvo tech at Proton prices. Meanwhile others give Vietnam tech at BMW prices!!!
30 years of automotive experience, today Proton is back to game over rebadging business again. Worse, Proton today rebadge China Geely cars
100 years of automotive experience, today Toyota is back to game over rebadging business again. Worse, Toyota today rebadge BMW & Porsche cars. Their supporters constantly said Toyota is more reliable than German makes, now they have to eat humble pie because their car reliability will be no better than German cars.
So shameful Malaysian Proton has become. We all sacrificed car prices to go super high just for Proton.
From 1985 to 2010, car prices went up 800% in Malaysia to protect Proton. In the same period globally, car prices only went up 50%
And yet, Proton is now 100% a rebadger. Just tampal logo only.
So sad, we all suffered for 30 years with high car prices just to see this
Copy paste: “I see someone was hibernating like a bear when Proton launches their own cars and only comes out when they launch a collaborative model. Meanwhile on the other side, Perodua have an unbroken string of rebadging since 25 years ago. 25 years of rebadging, tak malu ke?”
No. That price includes 37% excise tax for Vietnamese people. also for other countries, the price must be reduced by 37% because Vietnam can not apply this tax on them
No. That price includes 37% excise tax for Vietnamese people. also for other countries, the price must be reduced by 37% because Vietnam can not apply this tax on them.
Well if you’re worried about Proton using Chinese Geely tech, you should be even more worried about Vinfast BMW levels of costly servicing. You might afford the car but you will die standing just for regular servicing. O.o
If you are worried about BMW and vinfast, you should worry about China level of quality & design piracy and Proton’s level of tidak apa attitude.
Why should anyone be worried for Geely’s level of quality or piracy? So far there is no indication of their quality level is anything but astounding, much better than your typical perceived quality from a China manufacturer. And what piracy did X70/Boyue was lifted from? Don’t just simply talk, but I see from your history of comments you are just that: all talk no substance.
Aura It seems that you don’t know enough. Vinfast cars are guaranteed for 5 years up to 160.000km. Road service across Vietnam 24/24hrs and 7/7 days.
Well done if you don’t have anything made of CHINA.
Mahathir must be blushing when he arrived at that VinFast HQ. His Proton with over 30 years of experience has gone nowhere and finally got sold off to a Chinese company. Meanwhile in Vietnam these new upstart is gaining traction damn quickly….even more so when compared to how fast Geely took to expand.
Vietnam use German BMW partner and platform and we use lowest Jepunis Toyotaik tech. well done poodua!!!! clap clap clap clap to those idiotic jepunis worshipper that enable Poodua to remain village champion.
The good doctor…hobby…cars…even in Vietnam…but back here ,rakyat paying through nose to buy sub quality P1.,due to his egoistic hobby.
You mean helping cronies sustain their monopoly and money sucking.
Similar silhouette with a CX-5.
Die lor. When he comes back, God knows what new project he want to do this time.
Flying SUV
M tonton mesti blaja betolbetol macam mana vietnam buat bissness.
Obviously you have not test drive Proton X70.
Habislah even Vietnam also overtake Malaysia. They are considered the tiger of Asia now especially when Google just announced they will move their phone production to Vietnam from China…as with many other manufacturers.
The point is there are countries in Asean specifically who were behind-us are now catching-up as we still arguing on racial, religion, communism, meritocracy and 1969. People who say they do not have the diversity like us are only giving excuses, remember the Vietnam war which officially ended in the mid seventies and Myanmar/Philippines were once the torch bearers for Asean.
Tun, bila est drive flying car? After you try and everything OK then I buy 1.
Sebenarnya orang vietnam ini jadi tokey saja?. Mereka gajikan orangputih utk buat kreta? Pernah keluar artikel mengenainya.? Ada duit semua boleh jadi?
Yeah saw this in the news yesterday. Other than saying that Malaysians should emulate Viets determination, hardworking etc., which is true, but also have the gall to mention that Malaysia should follow Vietnam having their own car company without asking for Govt’s fund.
The question is, who has been asking for Govt’s fund all these years, and crying after people did not want to buy the products due to substandard quality, and later need to be sold to Geely?
so now another 3rd world country is making cars?
the BMW N20 engine is an old engine, which maybe BMW just dump it to Vinfast?.. Now BMW is using the B48 instead and it has be for couple of years already
Far better than his saga idea
This looks a million times better then the commie copy paste X70 we have hahahaha shame shame shame
real asia’s answer to bmw!!
Unreliable, expensive to maintain and run, low resale value. All the traits we don’t want.
Imma Vietnamese. I already paid for a sedan and also a SUV. Not sure what will happen in the future, but for now atleast, Im happy to support Viet company, i hope we can make Vinfast become more popular.