VinFast selects third and fourth models for production

VinFast, the company aiming to build Vietnam’s first cars, has selected two city car designs to develop for production, through an online competition that saw over 60,000 voters choose between 40 proposals from studios worldwide.

ItalDesign’s earlier winners: a sedan and SUV

A sedan and SUV had already been chosen in the same way last October, meaning that they intend to create four new models before decade’s end.

All four winning designs are proposals from ItalDesign, who beat the likes of Pininfarina, Zagato, Torino Design, and One One Lab (scroll through the gallery to the right for a better look at all four of the winning proposals).

Engine-powered supermini proposal

Their newly-chosen pair of superminis comprise one engine-powered car and one pure EV (coloured green, naturally). While clearly related proposals, they are graphically set apart with different bumper, wheel and pillar treatments.

Electric supermini proposal

The EV features partially-painted A- and C-pillars, aero-disc wheels as opposed to intricate multi-spoke efforts, and no traditional grille.

ItalDesign’s SUV proposal – rendered by Pininfarina

The highly collaborative nature of VinFast’s furious race to be the first Vietnamese car builder means that a different Italian design house, Pininfarina, has already been selected to develop the earlier sedan and SUV competition-winning proposals, as they are readied for a target production start of September 2019.

ItalDesign’s sedan proposal – rendered by Pininfarina

These Vietnamese models certainly won’t be lacking in Italian design input…

The results of Pininfarina’s development work will appear at the 2018 Paris Motor Show this autumn, with the superminis set to follow elsewhere a year later.