Vingroup's Green SM Taxi Lands In India June 5: A Vinfast Trojan Horse
Green SM, the Vietnamese ride-hailing company backed by Vingroup, will launch its India operations on June 5, 2026, starting with Delhi-NCR before expanding nationally. Unlike Uber and Ola, GSM will run an all-Vinfast fleet, kicking off with the Limo Green, a dedicated taxi version of the VF MPV 7.
What was announced
Green and Smart Mobility Joint Stock Company (GSM) was set up in 2023 by Vinfast founder Pham Nhat Vuong and already runs ride-hailing in Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines through a dedicated app. The India rollout begins June 5, 2026, in Delhi-NCR, with other metros to follow. It will compete head-on with Uber and Ola, plus the BluSmart-style EV-only operators.
Vinfast is using its own cab company to guarantee India volumes, the same playbook Maruti and Toyota have run for two decades.
The defining choice: GSM will use only Vinfast vehicles, no multi-brand fleet. The launch car is the Limo Green, a fleet-specific derivative of the VF MPV 7 electric MPV. It carries over the VF MPV 7's 60.13kWh battery pack but will get its own ARAI certification tailored to commercial fleet duty cycles, confirmed by Tapan Kumar Ghosh of Vinfast India.
With this move, Vinfast effectively joins the fleet-supplier club occupied by Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Toyota and Hyundai, except it owns both the car and the aggregator. That vertical integration is unusual for the Indian market, where cab supply and ride-hailing have historically stayed separate businesses. Vinfast's Thoothukudi plant, which began operations earlier this cycle, gives GSM a local manufacturing base for fleet supply rather than relying on CBU imports. Pricing for the Limo Green to fleet operators and any direct-to-driver leasing terms have not yet been disclosed; those numbers are expected at or shortly after the June 5 event.
The Car Jury verdict
This is less a taxi launch and more a distribution play. Vinfast has built a factory in Thoothukudi and now needs volume; running its own cab fleet guarantees baseline sales the way Maruti's Dzire and Toyota's Innova have for years. The Limo Green getting a separate ARAI certification for fleet use confirms the intent: this is a B2B car first, a private-buyer car much later.
Faisal Khan of FasBeam notes that the underlying VF MPV 7 was not conceived with this use case in mind when it was designed in 2020, which is exactly why the Limo Green exists as a re-engineered fleet variant. For private buyers eyeing Vinfast showrooms, the takeaway is simple: wait until the brand proves service uptime on its own cabs before signing a personal cheque.
