越南电动车出租车公司 Green SM 进军美国洛杉矶，使用 VinFast VF 8 建队

HANOI -- Vietnamese electric-vehicle taxi company Green SM this week launched its all-electric taxi services in Los Angeles, marking its first entry into North America and its ninth market globally.
Green SM, owned by Vietnam's richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong, has expanded beyond Asia into Europe over the past three months. The company is part of a business model that helps boost sales and expand the presence of VinFast, the loss-making EV maker also controlled by Vuong.
The three-year-old taxi and ride-hailing company now operates across Asia and Europe, including Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Denmark and the Netherlands.
"The United States represents an important milestone in Green SM's growth journey," said Green SM's U.S. CEO Hoang Thanh Hang. "We are not simply expanding into a new market. We aim to build trust with customers, drivers and local communities, one journey at a time."
In Los Angeles, Green SM uses VinFast VF 8 models and will gradually build its local team and strengthen its operational capabilities while recruiting and training local drivers, the company said in a news release late Wednesday.
Nguyen Quoc Tuan, its former CEO who is now chairman, told Nikkei in August that the taxi company planned to operate in 10 countries by the end of this year and in "dozens of countries" by 2030.
The move marks another attempt by Vuong's business empire to expand in the lucrative U.S. market, after VinFast substantially scaled back its operations in the world's largest economy. The automaker has delayed plans for a manufacturing plant in North Carolina and shifted its focus toward faster-growing Asian markets after struggling to gain traction in the U.S.
In 2025, Vuong said the country was a loss-making market for VinFast, citing high logistics costs, taxes and fees amid geopolitical tensions. He suggested the company would hold back until conditions became more favorable, invoking a phrase associated with former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who introduced market-oriented reforms: "Hide your strength, bide your time."
Green SM has been a key driver of VinFast's efforts to expand its brand recognition and market presence, effectively served as its rolling showroom. Its signature cyan-colored fleet began appearing on Vietnamese streets in 2023, helping absorb VinFast vehicles while familiarizing customers with the still-young EV brand through everyday rides.
Against that backdrop, the Los Angeles launch underscores the continuing role Green SM plays in supporting Vingroup's overseas ambitions.
Since 2024, Green SM has gained significant market share in Vietnam, competing directly with Singapore-based ride-hailing operator Grab. Meanwhile, VinFast overtook established automakers including Toyota and Hyundai to become the country's best-selling car brand that year.
In the first nine months of 2026, VinFast delivered 177,697 vehicles in Vietnam, up 71% from a year earlier. Green SM holds more than a 50% share of Vietnam's four-wheeled-taxi market, according to research firm Mordor Intelligence, surpassing Grab.
However, the model has yet to deliver the same results overseas. Despite Green SM's rapid international expansion, VinFast's sales abroad have lagged its performance at home. In the first half of 2026, VinFast delivered 12,746 vehicles outside Vietnam, well short of its full-year international sales target of 100,000.
VinFast posted a net loss of $3.9 billion in 2025 and accumulated about $9 billion in losses over the three years since its Nasdaq listing in 2023, despite receiving around $1.5 billion in grants and loans from Vingroup and Vuong himself. It posted a 28.11 trillion dong ($1.1 billion) net loss alone in the first quarter of this year.
The car company has recently undertaken major structural changes, including offloading its Vietnamese manufacturing business as part of a shift toward a more asset-light model and acquiring shares in a real estate company to generate additional earnings and cash flow. Vuong has also handed leadership of the automaker to his eldest son, Pham Nhat Quan Anh, who became chairman in May and CEO in September.
His second son, Pham Nhat Minh Hoang, also took the helm of Green SM as CEO last month.