Pham Nhat Vuong made the announcement at the company’s annual general meeting held online on Thursday, saying the output of electric cars is currently modest due to the severe global chip shortage, but electric vehicles are "an opportunity for Vingroup and Vietnam to change their stature."

But he said from now through 2026 Vingroup would sell hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles in the U.S. market.

"We are confident of that number because this is competition between electric and petrol vehicles, not between electric vehicles and electric vehicles."

Vingroup has a unique business model in that it owns the batteries of electric vehicles and merely rents them out to buyers, he said.

Vinfast electric cars have an NCAP five-star safety rating and are fully comparable with Tesla’s vehicles, he claimed.

By next year they would have level three driving autonomy or "environmental detection" capabilities enabling them to make informed decisions for themselves, such as accelerating past a slow-moving vehicle, he said.

Vuong also told shareholders about Vingroup’s biotech operations, including Covid vaccines and focus on industrial property around the country.

The company targets revenues of VND170 trillion in 2021, a 54 percent increase from last year, and post-tax profits of VND4.5 trillion, almost the same as in 2020.