The purchase of the 872-hectare car testing center in the Australian state of Victoria came just a few months after VinFast, a unit of Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup JSC, opened a research and development center in Melbourne.

The value of the purchase was not disclosed.

The purchase of the testing center is an important step to accelerate the firm's autonomy in the auto industry and expand opportunities to access international markets, it said.

VinFast last May tested its first electric car model in Hanoi, announcing plans to introduce it at a U.S. auto show later this year. The company said late last month it would start mass production of its first electric models from July next year, targeting the U.S. market.

The automaker has a plant with a production capacity of 250,000 cars and 250,000 electric bikes a year in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

VinFast started delivering its first cars in June last year. The company does not release sales figures, but official data shows that 5,124 VinFast cars were registered in the first quarter. This puts it in the fifth place in sales, behind Hyundai, Toyota, Kia and Honda.