Only two months after VinFast invited European journalists to explore its integrated industrial empire in Vietnam, with a range of electric cars, buses, and scooters, another part of that ecosystem has landed in Europe.

Green SM, the electric taxi company controlled by VinFast founder Phạm Nhật Vượng, began operating in Copenhagen on July 30 with VinFast VF 6 and VF 8 models.

Around 590 cars were registered in Denmark in June, suggesting a launch fleet of roughly 600 vehicles. The real difference is not simply that they are electric.

Green SM owns and manages the cars and supervises driver operations, rather than merely matching passengers with independent drivers through an app.

A different model from Uber

That makes Green SM different from Uber, Bolt, and Freenow. Those companies are mainly technology platforms. Drivers or local fleet partners normally provide the cars and carry much of the investment risk. This asset-light structure allows the platforms to scale quickly without buying thousands of vehicles.

Green SM does the opposite. It controls the car, branding, maintenance, charging, driver training, and customer experience. That should make service quality more consistent and guarantee that every journey is electric.

Uber is electrifying rapidly, but zero-emission vehicles still accounted for only 17.9% of its European mileage in the first quarter of 2026, although Amsterdam and London exceeded 40%.

The approach is not entirely unique. Traditional taxi companies have owned fleets for decades, and several European operators already run many electric cars.

What is unusual is the industrial chain behind Green SM. The same ecosystem builds the cars through VinFast, operates them through Green SM, and develops charging infrastructure through V-Green.

Green SM is therefore less an Asian Uber than a vertically integrated mobility company. Its advantage is control. Its weakness is capital intensity. Every new city requires cars, depots, charging, technicians, licenses, and drivers before the first passenger pays a fare.

The Netherlands and Sweden next?

Copenhagen is officially Green SM’s first European market, but preparations are visible elsewhere. The company has held a driver event in the Netherlands and is recruiting for Dutch operations, while discussions in Sweden have included a possible launch in August. Neither market has a confirmed starting date.

Belgium appears further away. VinFast told us, European journalists, earlier this year that Belgium could become a passenger-car market around 2027, following the restructuring of its Dutch dealer network.

Green SM would benefit from the same service and parts infrastructure, but taxi licensing is divided between Flanders, Brussels, and Wallonia. No Belgian launch has been announced.

The broader plan is enormous. VinFast and Green SM agreed in May that VinFast would supply the mobility company with about 1 million electric cars and 4 million electric scooters between 2026 and 2030.

The fleets can serve as captive customers, mobile showrooms, and high-mileage laboratories for batteries, software, and after-sales support.

That also raises an uncomfortable question. Only about 8% of VinFast’s first-quarter deliveries came from outside Vietnam, while the carmaker posted a net loss of approximately $1.12 billion.

Supplying an affiliated taxi company creates scale and visibility, but it is not the same as convincing independent customers to buy the cars.

Robotaxis already approaching

Green SM’s human-driven model may itself prove transitional. Europe’s robotaxi race is accelerating, and Copenhagen has suddenly become one of its most interesting battlegrounds.

Just days after Green SM’s launch, Chinese autonomous-driving specialist WeRide and Danish car-sharing company GreenMobility announced plans for a public robotaxi service in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

Uber and WeRide also plan a Madrid robotaxi pilot before the end of 2026, initially with safety operators. Baidu’s Apollo Go and Freenow have begun road tests in London, while Pony.ai, Verne, and Uber are preparing a commercial service in Zagreb.

Belgium has already granted WeRide a Level 4 permit for an autonomous shuttle with De Lijn around Leuven. That project operates on a fixed eight-kilometer route and is not yet an open urban taxi service, but it shows that autonomous vehicles are already moving beyond closed test sites in Belgium.

Robotaxis promise to remove the driver, the highest recurring cost in taxi operations, and run for longer hours. However, they remain expensive, geofenced, and dependent on regulators, remote support, and local fleet operators. In Europe’s complex cities, conventional electric taxis will remain easier to deploy for years.

VinFast is preparing for the next step. It has signed agreements with Autobrains and Nvidia for Level 4 technology and says future VinFast robotaxis will use Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion platform.

Green SM could provide what autonomous developers need: a controlled fleet, centralized maintenance, charging facilities, and millions of kilometers of operating data.

For now, Copenhagen is not a robotaxi revolution. It is a Vietnamese conglomerate that uses taxis to introduce an unfamiliar car brand to European passengers, one ride at a time.

But if Green SM expands into the Netherlands, Sweden, and eventually Belgium, it could become the fourth chapter in the VinFast story, and the bridge between today’s electric taxi and tomorrow’s driverless one.