Vingroup Joint Stock Company and Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) have signed an agreement to jointly build charging stations for electric vehicles produced by VinFast.

VinFast, a unit of Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup JSC, is building a USD3.5‐billion electric scooter and electric car production complex in northern Vietnam. On November 3, VinFast introduced its first electric scooter named Klara. Klara will be on sale on November 17, with a price tag starting at VND34 million (USD 1,458).

VinFast Chief Executive Officer Jim Deluca said that the firm would produce 250,000 electric scooters a year alongside 250,000 electric cars. The annual production target is to eventually produce one million units each.

According to the agreement with Petrolimex, VinFast will research the possibility of building charging stations at Petrolimex’s existing fuel retail outlets. Payment for charging at these outlets will be settled automatically using a co-branded payment card of Vingroup and Petrolimex, as part of efforts to boost non-cash payment.

On October 25, VinFast also signed a memorandum of understanding with PetroVietnam Oil Corp. (PV Oil) to build 20,000 charging stations throughout Vietnam by 2020.

VinFast aims to raise the total number of charging stations in Vietnam to 30,000-50,000 by 2020.