Automotive Engineering - October 2018 - 14

TECHNOLOGY
REPORT

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

VinFast: Vietnam's first car company has big ambitions

SAE INTERNATIONAL
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mircea Gradu, PhD
President
Douglas Patton
2017 President
Paul Mascarenas, OBE
2019 President Elect
Pascal Joly
Vice President - Aerospace

Vietnam's economy is expected to grow as much
as 7% annually in the near-term, and with a population of around 90 million, its automotive market is expected to surge rapidly from the current
300,000 annual pace. And where sales are dominated by brands like Toyota and Hyundai, Pham
Nhat Vuong is determined to grab a share for his
new company, VinFast, which aims to become
Vietnam's first major carmaker.
Barely a year ago, 40% of the company's
827-acre manufacturing site was still underwater. There's still plenty of mud and debris,
workers racing to pull things together. They
don't have time to waste, considering the plan
is to have the manufacturing complex up and
running before mid-2019.
Vuong is the Vietnamese Horatio Alger.
Twenty-five years ago, he borrowed $40,000
to launch a noodle company in the Ukraine,
later selling it to Nestle for $150 million. That
funded what is now Vingroup, a conglomerate
worth over $10 billion. It operates 57 high-end
shopping malls, a score of apartment and resort complexes, schools and hospitals. And
now, Vuong is set to build cars.
VinFast has released a handful of teaser images, but it's scheduled the official unveiling of
its first two models-a midsize SUV and a similarly sized sedan-for the 2018 Paris Motor
Show. Production at the new Haiphong plant is
scheduled to begin in spring 2019. It is, without
overstatement, an audacious plan.
And, "it drove me out of a comfortable retirement," says Jim De Luca, the long-time
General Motors executive who joined VinFast
as CEO in 2017, after more than a decade in
Korea and China. "This is more than the launch
of two vehicles. This is going to be big," he says
14 October 2018

with near-missionary zeal from VinFast's circular headquarters in Haiphong.
Considering it's one of the few buildings yet
finished, it's difficult to imagine how VinFast will
meet its timetable-which also calls for production of electric scooters, an EV and a city car by
autumn 2019. But everyone on a team of
American, European, Australian and Asian autoindustry veterans is determined to live up to the
operative word in the company's name: "Fast."
"We're doing in 24 months what most OEMs
need up to 60 months to do," DeLuca explains.
VinFast has lined up a list of partners including
ABB, AVL, Bosch, EDAG, LG Chem, Magna
Steyr, SAP, Siemens and Thyssen Krupp, to
name a few. But it's not a CKD manufacturer,
emphasizes Kelvin Fisher, the vice president of
engineering, noting the complex includes both
a stamping and engine plant.
Dave Lyon, a former GM designer, offers one
insight of how it can come together. He asked several European design houses to compete. Then, in
an unusual step, VinFast asked the Vietnamese
public to vote on their two favorite designs.
Pininfarina won. Once the winners were chosen,
Lyon says, final design work was completed digitally, "with no clay models to slow us down."
If there's a sense of déjà vu, BMW provided
the underlying architecture for its 5-Series and
X5. The Bavarian OEM also licensed the 2.0-L
I4 gasoline engine, which will be used in the
first two VinFast models in both front- and allwheel drive configurations. To hold down costs,
the Vietnamese company simplified the engine
design, eliminating BMW's complex VANOS
variable-valve actuation. Regardless, Fisher
insists preliminary emissions and fuel economy
testing is showing numbers that are close to

Landon Sproull
Vice President -
Commercial Vehicle
Pierre Alegre
Treasurer
David L. Schutt, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Gregory L. Bradley, Esq.
Secretary
Haoran Hu, PhD
Donald Nilson
Eric Tech
Jeff Varick
Todd Zarfos
SAE International Sections

SAE International Sections are local
units comprised of 100 or more SAE
International Members in a defined
technical or geographic area. The purpose
of local Sections is to meet the technical,
developmental, and personal needs of the
SAE Members in a given area. For more
information, please visit sae.org/sections
or contact SAE Member Relations Specialist
Abby Hartman at abby.hartman@sae.org.

SAE International
Collegiate Chapters

Collegiate Chapters are a way for SAE
International Student Members to get
together on their campus and develop
skills in a student-run and -elected
environment. Student Members are vital
to the continued success and future of
SAE. While your course work teaches
you the engineering knowledge you
need, participation in your SAE Collegiate
Chapter can develop or enhance other
important skills, including leadership,
time management, project management,
communications, organization, planning,
delegation, budgeting, and finance. For
more information, please visit students.
sae.org/chapters/collegiate/ or contact
SAE Member Relations Specialist Abby
Hartman at abby.hartman@sae.org.

AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING

VINFAST

VinFast asked the public for its input on design directions; the majority of the 65,000 votes received preferred the
concepts submitted by Pininfarina, whose sports sedan rendering is shown here.

Carla Bailo
Vice President - Automotive

http://www.sae.org/sections http://www.sae.org/chapters/collegiate/

Automotive Engineering - October 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive Engineering - October 2018