VinFast shows off first sedan, SUV ahead of official Paris debut
Vietnam came out the gate swinging, that's for sure.
Vietnam's first automaker, VinFast, teased two debuts for the Paris Motor Show , a sedan and an SUV. Now we finally get to see what they look like -- and they're actually pretty great.
You might not expect an automaker's first efforts to look as fully baked as VinFast's sedan and SUV, but these cars look like they could have come from any number of longstanding automakers. VinFast has Italian design house Pininfarina to thank for that, since the two collaborated on these vehicles. The designs you see here actually came from a nationwide poll, where Vietnamese citizens were asked to choose from 20 different design sketches.
Both cars carry quite a bit of style. With its thin headlights and high-beltline emphasis, VinFast's SUV comes off like a more mature version of the Hyundai Kona . It's not too far from the design sketch that previewed it, and I especially like the way the grille's "wings" stretch from the emblem to the headlights. Sadly, we haven't seen a shot of the interior yet.
The sedan is pretty cool, too. With those "wings" showing up both in the grille and the rear end, it seems that will be the design staple that VinFast will use to separate its cars from the crowd. The sedan packs a fastback-ish silhouette with quite the long hood. VinFast and Pininfarina really put in effort on these cars, and it shows.
"In conjunction with Pininfarina, we have carefully sculptured each body line to express the natural beauty of Vietnam and the warm-hearted and dynamic characteristics of its people through a modern and world-class design language," said David Lyon, VinFast's design director, in a statement.
When the cars make their debut at the Paris Motor Show on Oct. 2, VinFast will become the first Vietnamese automaker to have an unveiling as part of a major motor show. Here's hoping that they're as pretty in person as they are in these pictures. Keep your eyes peeled to Roadshow, because we'll be on the ground in Paris to get up close and personal with this new automotive duo.
There's a whole lot of European influence in VinFast's first SUV.