Vietnam's Largest Conglomerate, Vingroup, Builds ASEAN's First Electric Car Battery Factory

Vinfast, an electric car produced by Vingroup. (photo; vingroup.com)

JAKARTA - Vietnam's largest conglomerate, Vingroup, said on Sunday, December 12, that it had started building a $174 million (Rp 2.5 trillion) battery cell factory for VinFast's electric vehicle business.

The battery factory, from Vietnam's first EV battery project, is located in the central province of Ha Tinh. This factory is built on an area of 8 hectares. It is hoped that with the construction of the factory in Vietnam, the company will be able to own its battery supply chain.

VinFast became the country's first fully fledged domestic carmaker when a gasoline-powered model built under its own brand was launched on Vietnamese roads in 2019.

They are also betting on the US market, where electric SUV and battery rental models are expected to debut next year.

In October, local authority Ha Tinh said the factory was expected to be an investment of US$387 million and on 12.6 hectares of land.

"This is the focus of VinFast's supply localization strategy," said Thai Thi Thanh Hai, Vice Chairman of Vingroup and vice chairman of VinFast's board.

"This strategy allows us to own our battery and spare parts supply chain," added Thai Thi Thanh Hai, as quoted by Reuters.

The company said it was looking at the opportunity to produce 100,000 battery packs per year in the first phase and then increase the capacity to one million.

They also did not specify the time frame of the project in detail. However, based on a report last October, the project will run at full capacity from 2025.

VinFast works with various partners for batteries, including StoreDot, Gotion High-Tech and ProLogium and also focuses on internal R&D and building research facilities to develop battery and charging technologies. This was revealed by an official source at the company in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Last week, Vingroup said it was seeking a list of partners in the United States in the second half of 2022.