Now Vinfast comes in

This is a Vietnamese company that has come into the automotive industry. The company has acquired the old BMW X5 and saloon platform intellectual property rights that it is using to build a flagship sedan and SUV.

For its interior design, the company is going to work with Magna. The plan is to do 100-200 thousand vehicles in the first phase then build this up to about 500 thousand in the next 2 years.

Vinfast is a new player, not to be underestimated, but learning the business too. It is a start up that has taken the stake GM held in Vietnam and we all wish it well. What attracted me is that the designs you are seeing were consumer driven. Over 60,000 customers voted for over 20 designs and only the best were selected for production starting at the end of next year.

As we wait to see what comes out, we hope the execution will also be nice.