VinFast exits Australia due to COVID

Vietnamese start-up car-maker VinFast has confirmed it will walk away from Australia and the Lang Lang Proving Ground it bought from GM Holden less than 12 months ago for almost $34 million.

VinFast announced the closure of its Australian engineering centre in Port Melbourne and the resignation of Kevin Yardley, the Australian ex-Holden and GM veteran who set up its local office, in May.

Now the fledgling car-maker says it will also cease operations at the sprawling Lang Lang facility and shift vehicle development back to Vietnam amid Victoria’s ongoing coronavirus-related restrictions.

“Due to unexpected situations brought about by COVID-19, we have to relocate our operation back to Vietnam to ensure product development progress,” Vingroup global communications specialist HaiNam Mai told carsales.

“In the long-term future, VinFast still considers Australia as one of its strategic markets.”

VinFast yesterday told staff at Lang Lang it will wind down its operations at the historic proving ground east of Melbourne by the end of September, making around 50 people redundant.

The move will see the Lang Lang site, which is expected to be advertised for sale again soon, vacant apart from maintenance workers from October.

The move ends speculation that Vietnam’s richest man, property billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, who founded VinFast in 2017, may attempt to develop the pristine 877-hectare rural site for housing.

But it could also open the way for transport mogul Lindsay Fox to expand his property portfolio in Victoria.

LinFox already owns the nearby Phillip Island circuit and the Anglesea proving ground south of Melbourne, and was reportedly out-bidded for the former Holden site by VinFast last year.

Oddly enough, the newly named VinFast Lang Lang Proving Ground was only declared ‘open for business’ in June with the launch of a slick new website, llpg.com.au.

The same website is still actively advertising venue and facility hire, just as VinFast’s Australian website is still seeking expressions of interest from prospective automotive engineers.

VinFast set up shop in Port Melbourne in December 2019 and purchased Lang Lang from General Motors in September 2020 for a reported $33.6 million.

Then in May this year, VinFast shut the Port Melbourne facility, citing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, officials reaffirmed plans to continue operating the Lang Lang facility.

“VinFast’s decision to close the R&D office in Australia does not affect the Lang Lang Proving Ground. We will release official announcement if there is any change,” a statement from VinFast said at the time.

The sale of Lang Lang will come as a blow to VinFast’s remaining Australian staff, most of whom were ex-Holden and underwent a similar retrenchment process between 2017, when GM ceased local manufacturing, and 2020, when it ‘retired’ the Holden brand.

Between 50 and 90 employees of VinFast’s engineering centre were made redundant or offered a job in Vietnam in May. At the time, VinFast said it would refocus its vehicle development closer to its production facility in Hai Phong, due to the global pandemic.

Before that VinFast had planned to base its global engineering operations in Australia, where it developed the new generation of electric cars it has started rolling out ahead of planned launches in the US and Europe.

These include the VFe34 electric crossover, which is due for release later this year, while a ute was among a range of new EVs the car-maker previously said it would develop.

Opened by GM in 1957, the 2144-acre Lang Lang Proving Ground is home to 22km of sealed roads, 15km of unsealed roads and an emissions lab opened at a cost of $8.7 million just two years ago.