What opportunities for electric car companies in Vietnam?

In 2022, experts consider it a turning point for Vietnam’s electric vehicles when many automakers continuously land, creating more opportunities for domestic consumers to gradually come into contact with electric vehicles.

Previously, with its commitment at COP26, Vietnam showed that it did not want to stay out of this new trend. After that, a series of preferential policies for new electric vehicles were issued in the early days of 2022.

The evidence is that the Government’s preferential policies for newly issued electric vehicles have brought the registration fee for battery electric cars to 0% within 3 years, from March 1.

The policies have brought the registration fee for battery electric cars to 0% within 3 years, from March 1. In the next 2 years, the registration fee will be only 50% of petrol cars with the same number of seats. The special consumption tax rate for battery electric cars is also reduced to only 1-3%, effective from March 2022 to the end of February 2027.

With more open policies, Vietnam is becoming more attractive to electric vehicle manufacturers. Many leading car manufacturers in the world have continuously introduced a number of electric vehicle products that are expected to launch in Vietnam right in 2022.

At the end of 2021, Mercedes-Benz first introduced the EQS model at an online event. This model has the ability to operate up to 770km, the charging time at the fast charging station from 10% to 80% of the battery is about 31 minutes, there is no infrastructure for charging stations for customers. The latest move of this car company is that the Mercedes-Benz EQS will be introduced at the Vietnam Motor Show (VMS) 2022.

Most recently, Thanh Cong Group and Hyundai Motor Company have launched the Ioniq 5 electric car, with a speed of up to 185km/h, a maximum operation of about 450km per charge. However, this model does not have a commercial version and official price, just at the stage of market exploration.

Another model from the Korean manufacturer is Kia EV6, which is expected to launch in Vietnam in the second quarter of 2022. Newly completed in March last year, Kia EV6 is designed with many engine versions.

Audi is also planning to introduce the e-tron GT in Vietnam. This is a sports car with a luxurious appearance, compared with Posché’s Taycan model, which is a sports electric car with a high price, about 5 billion VND, but there is no infrastructure for stations. charge for customers.

Next is Porsche with the Taycan line. It’s an engaging sports car that delivers exhilarating rides, class-leading performance and cutting-edge technology.

In particular, the heat of the Vietnamese electric vehicle market is domestic warrior VinFast, the first car company in Vietnam, which has introduced 3 models in the domestic market, namely VF 8, VF 9 and VF e34.

Notably, after only 48 hours of opening for sale, 2 models VF 8 and VF 9 received about 24 thousand orders. Model VF e34 also received 25,000 orders after 3 months of opening for sale.

Vietnamese electric vehicle charging station problem

With any type of electric vehicle, certainly what consumers care about besides price and features, is the issue of charging stations. Currently in Vietnam, Vinfast is dominating other competitors with 40,000 charging ports that have been built across the country in 2021. 2,000 VinFast charging stations are located in convenient locations for users such as parking lots. Parking; shopping mall; office buildings, apartment buildings; along highways, national highways and gas stations.

Meanwhile, other brands that have just appeared in Vietnam do not yet have a charging station system or specific development roadmap. As Porsche currently has 2 points, 4 charging posts. The rest of the companies have not yet deployed.

Regarding the issue of “general charging”, Vinfast is taking advantage of the home field advantage and also made a very clear point that, only VinFast car users are allowed to charge at VinFast’s charging station. This means other brands’ electric vehicles can only be charged at home. This is one of the points that makes it difficult for Vietnamese consumers to avoid the apprehension when considering buying another brand’s electric car.

However, the advantage of charging stations has not been able to make Vinfast really “peaceful” to dominate the Vietnamese market when there are other Chinese electric cars that are likely to be imported to Vietnam under non-genuine practices.

Currently, VinFast’s charging stations do not have enough capacity to serve, so this Vietnamese car company only prioritizes providing utilities for its models.

When the facilities are enough to meet the demand, the Vietnamese car company will probably open it for other car companies to charge together. VinFast covers charging stations nationwide to show that it is interested in developing an electric vehicle service ecosystem for its customers, helping to increase vehicle sales rather than focusing on energy business.

In fact, in many markets where electric vehicles are common in Europe, electric vehicle manufacturers do not share charging stations with each other. Instead, it will be the public charging stations of the Government where all electric vehicles can be shared, thanks to the same charging port.

In Vietnam, only VinFast has developed a charging station system, there are no public charging stations like in other markets, so consumers who want to buy electric cars that are not Vinfast obviously have to consider a lot about charging problems. . This is the weakness of other car manufacturers that want to compete in the Vietnamese market, and need to have a roadmap or solution for consumers soon. If the charging station issue is widely deployed, consumers will surely have more choices right in the domestic electric vehicle market.