Chennai: In what would strengthen Tamil Nadu’s position as a key Electric Vehicle manufacturing hub, the first EV car manufactured by Vietnam headquartered VinFast rolled out from its factory in Thoothukudi district on Monday. Chief Minister M K Stalin, who had taken a policy decision to spread out industrial development to the long-neglected southern districts and tier-3 towns, affixed his signature on the bonnet of the VF7 model EV car as a symbolic rollout.
Stalin noted the VinFast plant had become operational in a record 17 months after the State signed a MoU with the Vietnam company. Spread across 408 acres at the SIPCOT industrial complex in Sillanatham, VinFast’s first such facility in India, is likely to generate over 3,500 jobs in the next five years. The Rs 16,000 crore deal with signed last year during the Global Investors Meet held in Chennai.
Initially the factory has a production capacity of 50,000 vehicles per year. In the future this would be scaled up to touch 1.5 lakh units. “Chennai is India’s Detroit. Besides, 40% of electric vehicles sold in India were manufactured in Tamil Nadu,” the Chief Minister said urging the Vietnamese group to make more long-term investments.
Industries Minister TRB Rajaa pointed out many people were sceptical about the project last year but now everything is up and running.
“We aim to develop it into VinFast’s largest export hub for South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. In fact, we have already secured orders from several countries across these regions. In close collaboration with the Tamil Nadu government, VinFast is working to transform the area into the EV capital of South Asia,” the company’s Asia CEO Pham Sanh Chau said on the occasion.
