VinFast enters India's EV space, opens plant in Tamil Nadu

• VinFast opens ₹16,000 crore EV plant in Tamil Nadu
• First VinFast plant in India with battery and car production
• 3,500 jobs expected in first five years of operation

Vietnamese automaker VinFast Auto opened its first Indian manufacturing facility at the SIPCOT industrial complex in Sillanatham, Thoothukudi district, supporting India's aspirations for electric vehicles and enhancing Tamil Nadu's position as a manufacturing powerhouse.

The project, which VinFast announced 17 months ago, cost Rs 16,000 crore (2 billion USD) and began operations with the inauguration by Chief Minister M K Stalin.

“Thoothukudi is now firmly on the map as an automotive hub,” Stalin said at the launch, adding that Tamil Nadu’s traditional strength in automobile production is now extending beyond Chennai, long regarded as “India’s Detroit.”

The complex, which covers 408 acres next to the well-positioned Thoothukudi Port, is VinFast's first combined battery and electric car manufacturing facility in India. When the business is fully operational, it hopes to produce 1.5 lakh EVs a year. During the first five years, the plant will generate approximately 3,500 employment and produce 50,000 automobiles annually.

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India is a key component of the company's expansion strategy, which hopes to make it a global competitor to China's BYD and Elon Musk's Tesla. In addition to serving the local market, the company plans to use the Thoothukudi factory as a regional export hub for South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

“We aim to develop this into VinFast’s largest export hub in South Asia,” said Pham Sanh Chau, CEO of VinFast Asia. “We already have confirmed orders from countries across the region.”

To mark the beginning of the company's Indian journey, Stalin signed the bonnet of a VF7 model on the shop floor during the launch. The business, which is a subsidiary of Vingroup, the biggest conglomerate in Vietnam, has quickly expanded internationally in spite of a difficult US market debut. It now faces off against Tesla, which is currently negotiating import tariff exemptions with the Indian government, and BYD, which assembles cars at a Kanchipuram factory close to Chennai, following the debut of Thoothukudi.