Vietnam-based electric vehicle maker VinFast is establishing a new integrated EV manufacturing unit at Thoothukudi where the company has planned to invest ₹4000 crore, spread over 5 years. The upcoming EV unit is expected to have an annual capacity of up to 150,000 units.

“Chennai is a very big cluster in the automotive sector. We are also focusing on Coimbatore and Hosur. There will be a 4th cluster that the government is forming. With VinFast coming in and many other industries making investments, we are developing Thoothukudi to be another auto cluster and we’re starting from the ground up there, Srinivasan, Senior Advisor – Electric Vehicle Sector, FameTN said at a conference.

Srinivasan said the state is also planning to set up two more common facilities and infrastructure for EV battery and vehicle testing.

“In the last 2 years, we took a lot of help from World Resources Institute - India (WRI) in working with the Coimbatore group, and that’s how the first common facility centre for motors and power electronics in Coimbatore was developed. We are now looking at a similar cluster in Chennai for battery and cell areas. We are also looking to develop a cluster potentially at Hosur for vehicle testing,” he added.