Tech firms such as Alphabet's Waymo and Cruise also are developing self-driving taxis or trucks for commercial use such as ride-hailing and delivery services.
In December, Vingroup said it had started building a battery cell plant in Vietnam. The company is looking to initially produce 100,000 battery packs per year, with $174 million in investment, and then upgrade capacity to one million.
The announcements come amid scrutiny of Tesla's driver assistance system Autopilot, which handles some driving tasks and allows drivers to keep their hands off the wheel at times.
Sales of EVs in the United States jumped to a record high earlier this month with 434,879 new units on the road, however, demand for their hybrid counterparts remained strong as many customers withdrew from EVs due to higher prices, limited driving range and fewer charging stations than required.
