If I tell you now that there is such a car company in Vietnam, its current valuation is nearly $60 billion, which is higher than the combined value of the three new car companies listed in the US stock market in China. It plans to sell 750,000 cars in 2026, compared with nearly 6.5438+0.5 million cars last year. Set up factories all over the world, and the overseas layout is even faster than many domestic car companies. It is also called "Asian Tesla" by some foreign media. And we, including most media people, have hardly heard of the name of this car company.
It's called Vinfast and has no Chinese name. In today's article, we will have a good talk with you. This car company, which is officially called by Vietnam as "breaking the unified situation of its northern neighbors in the automobile market", is exactly the case, and their cars are not that strong.
In fact, in the face of such a car company that everyone is not familiar with or even heard of, we should spend a lot of time introducing the ins and outs of this company and its product layout, but I still think that since it is a car company, then of course we should talk about their cars first.
VinFast is a pure electric vehicle company. At present, there are five pure electric vehicles on sale, and their names are more recognizable. From low to high, the highest positioning is VF5, VF6, VF7, VF8 and VF9. Among them, VF5, VF6 and VF7 are hatchbacks, all compact cars, and the body size is gradually enlarged. VF8 and VF9 are SUVs, in which VF8 is a medium-sized SUV and VF9 is a medium-sized SUV.
Since none of these five cars have entered China at present, and VinFast has just entered the American market, and there is no formal unified pricing, we will analyze them by converting their Vietnamese prices into RMB. The cheapest VF5 is equivalent to RMB 6,543.8+0.8 million, the second highest VF8 is equivalent to RMB 400,000, and the highest-end VF9 is equivalent to RMB 530,000. Obviously, none of these five cars are cheap.
So, are these cars super high? Super smart? Or is there too much space? Superpowers? Through the configuration information we obtained on VinFast official website, combined with various translation software, even the most advanced VF9, the biggest highlight of its configuration is that it is equipped with an L2-class autopilot system which is unique in the whole vehicle system and not available in other vehicles. It can automatically follow the car and start and stop at 40-100km. As for lidar, what is the 8 155 chip? Other models are not equipped with any auxiliary driving system, and the configuration is relatively general. Moreover, the space utilization ratio of these five VF models is not too high for the naked eye.
The battery life is not bad. The highest positioning VF9 and WLTP have a battery life of 594 kilometers. Because Vietnam adopts the European Union endurance standard, this data corresponds to about 660-670 kilometers of the domestic CLTC standard in Vietnam. The WLTP of VF6 is 400km, which is about 520km of CLTC standard. The WLTP endurance of VF7 is 450km, which is equivalent to about 570km of CLTC standard. It is basically the same as the domestic pure tram at the same level (not at the same price).
It can be said that in addition to endurance, these cars are more competitive in intelligence and configuration compared with pure electric vehicles that have spread the sky in China. Now it is reported that VinFast intends to enter the domestic market as early as this year and at the latest in 2025. As far as the product strength and pricing of these cars are concerned, we don't think this brand can do much in the Chinese mainland market. It can't beat a large number of domestic car companies.
In fact, to put it bluntly, the car company VinFast is very different from several new domestic forces: it is a "rich second generation" and was born with a golden key. From the day it was born to today, it doesn't know what "lack of money" means. VinFast has never encountered financing difficulties or even survival crisis experienced by all new domestic forces, because its "father" is not generally rich.
VinFast belongs to Vingroup, Vietnam's largest business group, with a valuation of more than $39 billion. This is a real estate and retail group, but don't underestimate this group, it is not just a real estate developer. The status and influence of this group in Vietnam is similar to that of South Korea's Samsung. Vinmec, the largest hospital in Vietnam, Vinhome, the largest real estate developer, Vincom, the second largest mobile phone brand, Vincom, the largest shopping mall, and the urban planning of many cities in Vietnam are also designed and constructed by Vingroup. To put it bluntly, this is the Vietnamese version of Samsung Group.
Therefore, it is impossible for VinFast to have no money. Since its birth five years ago, it has encountered many problems like the new domestic forces, including delivery difficulties and quality crisis, but all these problems have been solved in a very short time, relying on the "ability to pay." Moreover, the car company VinFast is very smart. At present, the core three-electric system of each car is ready-made parts purchased in China. Even many core components of the vehicle are provided by suppliers in China. Even at the beginning of the research and development of these cars, several domestic Tier 1 vehicle design suppliers were invited to give advice.
Therefore, in the enterprise, VinFast is actually highly bound to China. Even during the period when China was unable to supply in large quantities because of the epidemic blockade, VinFast was directly affected, and the delivery of most new cars stopped directly. Moreover, VinFast has very good in-depth cooperation with many overseas car companies including BMW. Therefore, in the early days of VinFast, the early models before pure trams were directly used, and the explosive cars of some overseas car companies were replaced with shells.
So don't underestimate this car company. Its business mind is very flexible and its interpersonal relationship is very good. In fact, he is good at business relations and has a flexible business mind, which is one of the biggest advantages of real estate developers. VinFast gives full play to these advantages.
Therefore, in fact, real estate developers are not necessarily bad at building cars. The key is just how to look at building a car.
Although there are some problems in the pace of VinFast entering the United States at this stage, it is undeniable that this car company has great energy, I mean non-commercial energy. At present, the core management is active and not short of money, so VinFast is determined to enter the world's largest automobile market-China. Moreover, VinFast has been dealing with the automobile industry in China for many years, so it is impossible not to know the current situation and trend of the automobile market in China.
Therefore, at present, in the face of Southeast Asia, a less developed market, VinFast can achieve very good profits, sales volume and public opinion effects with slightly poor vehicle product strength. In other words, what you see now is not the best effort of the brand. If this brand enters the domestic market in the future, it will certainly roll up like everyone else, and even rely on the advantages of its own funds to roll up even more than some domestic car companies.
So, yes, VinFast is likely to be a very strong competitor that local car companies in China will face in the future. As consumers, we are naturally happy to see this kind of "foreign catfish" and compete with domestic car companies. After all, the ultimate beneficiary of healthy competition will always be consumers.
This article is from Professor Hao, the author of Good Che Yi, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.