VinFast to stop making gas-powered cars this year

"From a rookie in the market with gas-powered cars, VinFast is now making its mark as an electric carmaker," VinFast Global CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy said at the 2022 CES exhibition in Las Vegas, the U.S., on Wednesday.

The company introduced three new electric models at the event and announced prices for the two models it launched at the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show in November.

In Vietnam, its cheapest car (VF8) starts at VND1.06 billion ($46,600).

"The field of electric cars is still in the early stages of development, the level of competition is not too fierce and there is still room for breakthroughs for new brands," Bloomberg quoted Thuy as saying.

VinFast is looking at an international market with the potential of more than one billion cars that would be replaced by electric cars in the near future, she added.

The automaker is considering three locations in the U.S. to build a factory with a capacity of 250,000 vehicles a year.

The first phase, to be completed by 2024, would cost $1-1.5 billion, Thuy added.