4 top executives leave EV maker VinFast amid global ambitions

VinFast has "ended labor contracts" with four senior executives with their consent while the Vietnamese electric vehicle maker is expanding its sales and services networks in Europe and the U.S.

"All three agreed to end their contracts in legal terms. Adjustment in human resources is a common business practice around the world. VinFast is no exception," Reuters quoted a VinFast statement.

The EV startup said the four are Emmanuel Bret, deputy CEO for global sales; Franck Euvrard, deputy CEO for product development; Hong Bae, deputy CEO for vehicle technology development; and Bruno Tavares, chief finance officer.

Bret was among the executives who represented VinFast at the New York auto show in the U.S. this April to display prototypes of its VF8 and VF9 electric SUVs. Prior to his post at the Vietnamese firm between January and June, Bret spent eight years working for BMW, including as CEO at BMW Group Sweden.

Like Bret, Euvrard joined VinFast this January. His own introduction on LinkedIn shows he worked for Tata Technologies between January 2020 and December 2021, and a present part-time job as French foreign trade advisor from July 2021. Meanwhile, Hong Bae used to work for Samsung Electronics as an engineer.

Huy Chieu, a program engineering manager at General Motors in May-October 2021, joined VinFast last November and has been named the leader in the firm’s EV development endeavors.

At present, the automaker, a subsidiary of Vietnam's largest listed conglomerate Vingroup, is preparing to start construction of a $4-billion factory in North Carolina and is in the process of a potential initial public offering in the U.S. For Europe, it has just announced plans to open at least 50 stores in Germany, France and the Netherlands.

They will include at least 25 VinFast stores in Germany, 20 in France and five in the Netherlands. The first confirmed German locations include Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Oberhausen and Hamburg. In France, locations include Paris, Marseille, Nantes, Rennes, Nice, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence and Metz. It is expected that Amsterdam will be the first VinFast store to open in the Netherlands.

Established in 2017, VinFast launched its first fossil fuel cars in October 2018 and then gradually shifted to EV manufacturing with global ambitions.

At the CES 2022 in early January, the EV startup announced it would stop producing vehicles with internal combustion engines by the end of 2022 as it goes all-electric. That is only two and a half years after the first cars rolled off the company’s assembly lines.

Late July 2021, VinFast’s parent Vingroup appointed German Michael Lohscheller, former America executive vice president of Volkswagen Group and general manager of Opel Global, as CEO of VinFast Global.

Five months later, Vingroup announced in a release: "Mr. Michael Lohscheller will leave the position and return to Europe due to personal reasons."

Vietnamese native Le Thi Thu Thuy took over as VinFast Global CEO last December after his resignation.