After only 1 year, Vietnam’s charging station infrastructure has changed dramatically

Main content:

• – On the journey of more than 1,700 km from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, the group crossing Vietnam by VinFast VF8 electric car did not encounter any obstacles and took 28 hours and 33 minutes to reach the destination.
• – In 2022, on the same road, this group of people takes 48 hours to travel by VF e34, at this time the charging station infrastructure is not complete.
• -The cost of fueling the VF8 when going from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City is less than 1.4 million VND (including charging and battery rental fees), equivalent to 1/3 of the fuel price when using a gasoline car of the same distribution.

One of the barriers that makes users afraid of electric vehicles is the charging station infrastructure, especially when traveling long distances. VinFast, the only electric vehicle manufacturer in Vietnam, is working with chains of petrol stations across the country to complete infrastructure, bringing significant convenience to electric vehicle users.

Charging station infrastructure changes, shortening travel time from North to South

Pham Hoang Minh has just returned from a trip across Vietnam by VF8 tram with 2 friends. The main purpose of the trip was to test the long-distance running ability of VF8 – VinFast’s new electric car line.

The starting point of the journey is from Gamuda Yen So urban area (Hanoi) and the destination is Landmark 81 building (HCMC), the total distance is about 1,752 km. A special feature of this trip, according to Mr. Minh, is that the travel time only takes 28 hours and 33 minutes.

Before that, in 2022, Minh’s group also made a similar journey by electric car VF e34. At this time, the travel time is about 48 hours.

The reason the travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City by electric car is shortened by more than half this time thanks to the change in charging station infrastructure.

Minh said that in 2022, going from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City “is like a journey from one Vincom mall to another” when only Vincom has an electric vehicle charging station. Even when they arrived in Binh Thuan, Mr. Minh’s group had to “turn the wheel” to Lam Dong and then back to Ho Chi Minh City because Binh Thuan did not have an electric vehicle battery charging station at this time.

However, the charging station infrastructure has changed significantly after 1 year: “Now, VinFast installs charging posts at almost all PVOIL gas stations, so we can easily follow Highway 1 or shorter roads, can be stop anywhere to recharge.”

Minh also said that his group of 3 are all experienced long-distance drivers who can take turns driving. The group maintains the maximum allowed speed on each route, for example 120km/h on expressways, 60km/h on NH1A in urban areas, 90km/h on non-urban roads

Fastest charging time 10 minutes, longest 32 minutes

With the VF8, each time the battery is fully charged, the car can run up to 400 km – longer than the performance of the VF e34 with about 250 km. From there, Minh’s team calculated that this journey could take 36 hours. However, the convenience of infrastructure and new super-fast charging technology were the main factors that helped the group reach the destination earlier than expected.

“The super-fast charging system is arranged by VinFast with a distance of less than 250km from each station across the country. We charge 8 times, the fastest time is 10 minutes, the longest is 32 minutes. Only charging the battery to 80% is Last March when running VF e34, it took 11 battery charges with a time of 11 hours”, Mr. Minh said.

Regarding the reason for only charging up to 80% of the battery, Mr. Minh said that the charging time from 80% to 100% is very long, usually 45-60 minutes. In terms of convenient charging station system, charging more than 30 minutes for 80% battery is the optimal choice.

Details of the battery charging process are saved by Minh’s team:

1. Yen So (Hanoi) – Cuong Temple (Nghe An) 257km battery consumption from 100% to 34%: charge to 78% in 20 minutes.

2. Cuong Temple – Thien Phuc Stop (Quang Binh) 229km battery consumption from 78% to 13%: charge to 80% in 20 minutes.

3. Thien Phuc stop – Thai Ha stop, Phu Loc (Hue) 250km battery consumption from 80% to 6%: charge to 81% in 32 minutes.

4. Thai Ha – Vincom Quang Ngai stop 182km battery consumption from 81% to 21%: charge to 81% in 30 minutes.

5. Vincom Quang Ngai – PVOIL An My (Phu Yen) 252km battery consumption from 81% to 5%: charge to 51% in 26 minutes.

6. PVOIL An My – Vincom Ninh Hoa 93km battery consumption from 51% to 26%: charge to 81% in 27 minutes.

7. Vincom Ninh Hoa – PVOIL Lien Huong (Binh Thuan) 183km battery consumption from 81% to 34%: charge to 81% in 20 minutes.

8. PVOIL Lien Huong – PVOIL Lagi (Binh Thuan) 150km battery consumption from 81% to 41%: charge to 55% in 10 minutes.

After the last charge, the car has enough battery to run to the end point is Landmark 81 building (HCMC).

The amount that Minh’s group has to pay for 8 charges is 1,292,660 VND. With the battery rental option that Minh’s team chose when operating the VF8 (a fixed battery rental package with unlimited kilometers costs VND 2,189,000/month, equivalent to about VND 73,000/day), the cost of “refueling” for VF8 in the journey across Vietnam 1,752 km is less than 1.4 million VND, of which is mainly the charge for electricity.

“Before traveling through Vietnam by electric car, we used to make the same journey many times by petrol car. The cost of fueling for such a trip is about 4 million dong,” Minh said.

In big cities, VinFast installs charging stations in many urban areas, commercial centers…

In other localities, VinFast cooperates with a number of units to build a charging station system.

Since 2018, PVOIL and VinFast have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in deploying a system of charging stations and renting batteries for smart electric motorbikes and electric cars. The event kicks off VinFast’s plan to set up 30,000 – 50,000 charging and battery rental stations nationwide.

According to the memorandum of understanding, in the first phase, PVOIL will provide 600 petroleum trading points nationwide for VinFast to install the station system, and increase to 20,000 points by 2020. Based on these locations, VinFast will flexibly deploy models, to fully meet customers’ needs for electric energy, including: Fast charging station system, battery rental station system and overnight charging station system.

However, in July 2022, VinFast and PVOIL just inaugurated and put into operation the first electric vehicle charging station at PVOIL petrol station in Cat Hai district, Hai Phong city.

In 2022, PVOIL cooperated with VinFast and quickly completed the installation of nearly 300 electric vehicle charging stations at PVOIL petrol stations nationwide.

In early June, 2022, Vinfast and Petrolimex also signed an Agreement on business cooperation in electric vehicle charging station system at Petrolimex’s petrol station system.This is the first step in the cooperation process between Petrolimex and Vingroup under the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement signed together in 2018.

By October 2022, Petrolimex and VinFast officially opened the electric vehicle charging station service at the first 10 Petrolimex petrol stations in the North – Central – South.

It is expected that in the two years 2022-2023, more than 500 VinFast electric vehicle charging stations will be installed and served to customers in the premises of Petrolimex petrol stations nationwide.