Hail a taxi in Vietnam’s busy Ho Chi Minh City, and you may be surprised to be picked up by a cyan-colored, modern-looking EV. Unlike the motorcycles and scooters that dominated the city’s streets for years, these electric taxis are both comfortable and homegrown; they’re made by VinFast, an ambitious (and expensive) project by Vingroup—one of Vietnam’s largest privately owned companies—that aims to turn the Southeast Asian country into a car manufacturer.
It’s not the only indicator of change on Vietnam’s city streets. Fancy Western-style coffee shops, luxury hotels, and high-end consumer brands dot Ho Chi Minh City, even as many Vietnamese continue to eat their lunch on plastic stools in hole-in-the-wall eateries right next door.
