Vietnam's VinFast to launch at Paris Motor Show

It appears that there will be a new country on the automotive landscape thanks to VinFast, which is a Vietnamese manufacturer due to launch its first models at the 2018 Paris Motor Show in October.

The first models VinFast will bring to market are a sedan and SUV that are as-yet unnamed. They're both due to go on sale in the company's native Vietnam in September 2019, but plans are in place to offer them in markets around the world in the coming years.

At the moment, any technical details about the vehicles are conspicuous by their absence, but the fact VinFast has commissioned legendary design house Pininfarina to design them shows just how serious they are about making a big impression. The teaser images released by VinFast so far show both the SUV and the sedan with very distinctive front grilles featuring a V motif created by a couple of swooping LED running lights.

In a very uncharacteristic move for a motor manufacturer, VinFast chose the final designs for the sedan and SUV from 20 submitted by various design houses after a public vote was held on them. Some 62,000 votes were cast, and when they were counted the two designs from Pininfarina came out on top.

VinFast's ambitions are big, and they expect to be building as many as 500,000 units per year by 2025. More models than the initial two are planned, but no details of those have been revealed at present.

James DeLuca, the CEO of VinFast says: "We have the resources, scalability and commitment to become a significant new player in the global automotive industry. We are immensely proud to be the first volume automotive manufacturer in Vietnam and the first to participate in a major international motor show."