VinFast Auto (NASDAQ:VFS) made its commercial debut in India on Saturday, offering two SUV models at prices to rival those of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), which launched only a few weeks ago in the world’s third-largest auto market.
The Vietnamese EV maker unveiled its SUV models VF6 and VF7 at an event attended by CEO Pham Sanh Chau in the Indian capital, New Delhi. “India is essential to our mission. Entering India was about understanding their needs, and the response to our entry into the nation was phenomenal,” Sanh Chau said.
With its market entry, Hai Phong-based VinFast (NASDAQ:VFS), the first foreign pure-play EV-maker to invest in a production plant in India, is set to compete with domestic rivals such as Mahindra and Mahindra (OTC:MAHMF) as well as global EV makers including Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and BYD (OTCPK:BYDDF) (OTCPK:BYDDY).
The ex-showroom price for its cheapest model, the compact SUV VF6, starts from about ₹1.6M ($18.1K), while that for its mid-sized SUV starts from roughly ₹2.1M ($23.0K) during a special introductory period. BYD’s (OTCPK:BYDDF) compact SUV Atto 3 is on sale in India at prices starting from ₹2.5M.
In mid-July, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) entered the Indian market with its Model Y electric SUV, priced at around ₹6.0M ($69.8K). However, its launch has fallen short of the Elon Musk-led firm’s own expectations, with orders for just over 600 units received so far, Bloomberg News reported this week, citing people familiar with the matter.