Green SM launches 500-car VinFast VF8 ride-hailing fleet in Los Angeles

Green SM has begun operating in Los Angeles with a fleet of 500 VinFast VF8 electric SUVs, marking the Vietnamese ride-hailing company's first entry into the United States. The service launched on October 13 and its cars and drivers are already active across Los Angeles County, with coverage extending south into Orange County.

What sets the launch apart from Uber and Lyft is ownership: Green SM owns every vehicle in the fleet outright and staffs them with 500 full-time employees rather than independent contractors using their own cars.

How the service works

Every car in the launch fleet is a five-seat VinFast VF8, and each completed ride produces zero tailpipe emissions. Riders can summon a car through the Green SM app, by calling the company's hotline, or by hailing one on the street. Fares scale by time and distance, and early coverage compares typical trip costs to Uber Comfort pricing.

Green SM lists airport runs among its intended US services, but neither the company nor Los Angeles World Airports has publicly detailed when, or under what permit, its cars might serve Los Angeles International Airport.

To attract first-time users, new customers get 50 percent off, up to $12 per ride, on their first five trips, plus a Green Pass membership carrying 10 monthly vouchers worth 30 percent off, up to $10 per ride. The company says it will keep recruiting and training local drivers as demand grows.

The employee-driver model

Each of the 500 Los Angeles drivers is a company employee who goes through the same selection, training and onboarding process before picking up a rider. Green SM supplies the car, the maintenance and the training, and the driver works a shift instead of logging into an app at will.

US chief executive Hoang Thanh Hang said the approach is more than a fleet swap, describing the company's aim as building trust with customers, drivers and local communities "one journey at a time," and calling service quality and intentional customer interactions "the other half of the equation". That pitch rests on predictable schedules and employer-backed benefits in place of the variable earnings typical of gig work.

The model carries real costs that gig platforms push onto drivers: Green SM buys, insures and maintains every car and pays a full-time workforce whether or not demand fills the schedule. Whether fares pegged near Uber Comfort pricing can cover that overhead at 500 cars is the commercial question the launch has to answer.

A crowded Southern California market

Green SM arrives in a market where electric and autonomous ride services are already expanding. Waymo's fully driverless Waymo One service has been open to all riders in Los Angeles since November 12, 2024.

The company says it has completed roughly 850 million rides globally, a network that began in Vietnam in 2023 before spreading across Asia and into Europe.

The fleet also gives Angelenos a way to sample VinFast vehicles. The brand debuted in the United States in 2023 and is the most popular automaker in Vietnam, but it has yet to gain much traction stateside. Secondary reports citing S&P Global Mobility data describe an analyst estimate of about 389 new VinFast US vehicle registrations between January and July 2026.

Car and Driver's own review of a 2023 VF8 raised qualms about handling, suspension and fit and finish, though the publication notes VinFast appears to have addressed some of those issues in newer US models. For the automaker, 500 cars carrying paying passengers around the country's second-largest city amount to a moving showroom, and the feedback riders give could shape how Americans judge a brand most have only read about.

Volkswagen will sell Chinese-built cars in Australia, brand CEO Thomas Schäfer has confirmed. Speaking to Autocar at the Paris motor show, Schäfer named Australia among the markets set to receive vehicles exported from China, alongside the Middle East.

Schäfer framed the move as a push into markets with easier access from China than Europe. "We're starting now to export to the global south and countries that have easier access from China than Europe, such as Australia and the Middle East," he said. "For the future, we're getting ready for bringing one or more vehicles in from China".

What has not been announced

The confirmation leaves the practical questions open. Schäfer did not say which models would be sold in Australia, whether they would be versions of cars already sold elsewhere or nameplates developed specifically for the Chinese market, when they would arrive, or what they would cost. Volkswagen Australia has yet to announce any Chinese-built models for its local lineup.

That gap matters for buyers trying to plan a purchase. Until Volkswagen Australia names the models and the launch dates, there is nothing concrete to compare against the brand's existing European-built range, and no Australian pricing or specification to weigh up.

A shift in how Volkswagen sources its cars

Schäfer said Chinese-made models would likely supplement Volkswagen's existing European lineup, which is largely built in Germany and Spain. The brand produces vehicles in China through partnerships with SAIC, FAW and JAC.

The product mix available from those Chinese operations is broad. Local versions of the Golf, Passat, Tiguan and Tayron are built there, alongside China-specific nameplates including ID. Era, ID. Aura, Lavida, Lamando, Talagon and Tavendor. SAIC, which owns MG Motor, builds China-specific Volkswagens such as the ID. Era 9X, a 5.2-metre-long six-seat SUV with an extended-range electric powertrain unveiled in January.

Volkswagen plans to introduce more than 30 new electrified models in China by 2029, spanning battery-electric, plug-in hybrid and range-extender powertrains. That pipeline is the likely pool from which Australian exports would be drawn, though the company has not said so.

Not Volkswagen's first Chinese-built car for Australia

The brand was the first official vehicle distributor to offer a Chinese-made passenger car in Australia, bringing Polo Classic sedans built by Shanghai Volkswagen at Anting, near Shanghai, to local showrooms in 2004.

Volkswagen began negotiations on Chinese production in 1978, with its first locally assembled Santana rolling off the line in 1983. Its Volkswagen-brand manufacturing operations now span 13 vehicle assembly plants and 21 component plants in China.

The export push comes as Volkswagen looks to rebound from sluggish global sales. The brand was the best-selling auto brand in China from 1986 until 2022, when BYD took the top spot in 2023.

For Australian buyers, the significance is less about heritage than about what lands in showrooms. Chinese-built Volkswagens would sit alongside European-built cars rather than replace them, according to Schäfer's description, which suggests the brand is widening its lineup rather than switching its sourcing wholesale. The unanswered question is whether those cars will be priced to compete with the Chinese brands already selling strongly here, or positioned as premium additions above the existing range.