Taiwan's Foxconn and Vietnam's VinFast explore electric vehicle partnership

Vietnam's Vinfast is negotiating with Taiwan’s Foxconn about forming a partnership focused on developing batteries and electric car parts.

Foxconn has proposed acquiring EV production lines owned by VinFast, the car unit of Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest conglomerate. But VinFast prefers a partnership as it is keen to brand itself as an eco-friendly automaker and wants to retain its EV business, one of the sources said.

A Vingroup spokesman revealed that they have received proposals from Foxconn but nothing has been decided. He added that the potential partnership would focus on developing electric car batteries and parts.

Foxconn, an Apple supplier, and the world’s largest contract manufacturer plans to become a major EV provider of parts and services.

VinFast is Vietnam’s first fully-fledged domestic car manufacturer. It sold about 30,000 vehicles last year and has forecast sales of over 45,000 for this year. It will begin the delivery of locally-produced EVs to domestic customers by December.

VinFast had set up an electric vehicle battery venture with Taiwan’s ProLogium.