Vinfast to set up EV plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi
VinFast Auto is setting up an electric vehicle (EV) and battery manufacturing facility at Thoothukudi, near Chennai, which will have the capacity to produce 150,000 EVs in the first phase, a person aware of the developments told ET.
The total investment in the 400-acre facility could eventually touch as much as $1 billion or even more, the person said, adding that VinFast is likely to make an official announcement on Saturday.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteMITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Digital TransformationVisitIIM KozhikodeIIMK Advanced Data Science For ManagersVisit«The plant's capacity in phase one is likely to be around 150,000 cars and VinFast is targeting manufacturing 50,000 units at the plant in the first year,» the person cited above said, requesting anonymity.
VinFast, the EV arm of Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate Vingroup, had said in October that it would build assembly factories in India and Indonesia with annual capacities of 50,000 cars each, entailing an initial capital expenditure of up to $200 million. However, people ET spoke to said the projected investment is likely to be much larger.
«They have indicated that the investment could go up to being a billion dollars or more but until it is formalised and announced, we cannot comment,» a second person said.
Queries sent to VinFast remained unanswered until press time.
ET had reported in October that VinFast was evaluating potential sites for its planned factory in India and had reviewed two locations in Tamil Nadu — Manalur and Thoothukudi.
At the time, the company said it aimed to start assembling vehicles by 2026 in what it has termed as a
