Green SM Brings Its VinFast Electric Taxi Fleet to Los Angeles

Vietnamese ride-hailing company Green SM has officially launched electric taxi service in Los Angeles, marking its first foray into the United States and its ninth market worldwide. The rollout began on 13 October, roughly a month after the operator set foot in Europe, underscoring how quickly the VinFast affiliate is stretching its global footprint.

Riders in Los Angeles can request a vehicle through the company’s mobile app, available on both the App Store and Google Play, or fall back on more traditional options such as a phone hotline or simply flagging a cab on the street. To draw attention during the launch window, Green SM is running a promotion that halves the fare on a customer’s first five trips, with the discount capped at 12 dollars per ride. A complimentary Green Pass membership is also part of the offer, handing members ten vouchers that each take 30 per cent off a ride up to ten dollars.

The Los Angeles fleet is built exclusively around the VinFast VF 8, a mid-size SUV that stands as the Vietnamese brand’s most accessible model in the U.S., with pricing starting at 39,900 dollars. Buyers stateside can choose between two dual-motor all-wheel-drive configurations: one delivering 260 kW and 500 Nm of torque, the other producing 300 kW and 620 Nm. Both rely on an 87.7 kWh NMC battery pack, which the Environmental Protection Agency rates at 256 miles of range for the lower-output variant and 235 miles for the stronger one. Green SM has not said which setup its cabs use, or whether the fleet mixes both.

“The United States represents an important milestone in Green SM’s growth journey,” said Hoang Thanh Hang, who leads the company’s U.S. operations. “We are not simply expanding into a new market. We aim to build trust with customers, drivers and local communities, one journey at a time.”

Green SM was founded in 2023 by Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of VinFast’s parent company Vingroup, and runs entirely on VinFast electric vehicles. The company says it has completed roughly 850 million rides spanning close to six billion kilometres. Its service now reaches India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and the Philippines across Asia, along with Denmark and the Netherlands in Europe. Notably, while Green SM fields both electric scooters and cars in Asian markets, its American operation is car-only.

The Los Angeles debut puts the operator into one of the world’s most competitive ride-hailing arenas, where it will lean on its all-electric positioning as a differentiator. Whether the initial single-city footprint grows into a wider U.S. network will depend on how the launch performs and how quickly the company can scale its VinFast-backed fleet.