VinFast, the automobile subsidiary of Vietnam's largest privately-run conglomerate Vingroup, on October 25 signed a memorandum of understanding with PetroVietnam Oil (PV Oil) to build charging stations and lease battery for its electric cars and scooters, Vingroup said in a statement.
Overview of the signing ceremony. Source: Vingroup.
|
In the first phase, PV Oil will provide 600 of its service stations for VinFast to deploy charging stations, which is expected to increase 20,000 by 2020.
VinFast customers will be able to charge their vehicles or change their batteries at these stations.
The cooperation is VinFast's first step of introducing its smart electric scooters by the end of 2018 and later electric cars.
"Since the very beginning, VinFast has had strategy to develop a comprehensive ecosystem for our electric vehicles, including electric cars and scooters, such as charging and battery leasing stations," said Nguyen Viet Quang, CEO of Vingroup, in a statement.
With a 20-22% market share, PVOIL is the second largest petroleum distributor in the country after Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex). The firm operates a network of 540 gas stations nationwide under the company-owned company-operated (COCO) model and 3,000 gas stations under the dealer-owned dealer-operated (DODO) model.
VinFast, which aims to become Vietnam's first domestic car manufacturer, plans to have its first production models built under its own badge hit the streets next August. Vingroup has earmarked about US$3.5 billion for the project.
From a standing start, VinFast will have the capacity to produce 250,000 cars annually in the next five years or so, equivalent to 92% of all the cars sold in Vietnam last year, according to data collated by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA).
VinFast caught the worldwide attention when the company presented its first two models of LUX A2.0 and LUX SA2.0 at the Paris Motor Show on October 2 with the appearance of ex-football player David Beckham.
