Vietnamese EV startup AVES puts up nearly VND 300 million to crowdsource electric two-wheeler designs

AVES, a newcomer to Vietnam's electric motorcycle market, has launched a national design competition called the AVES Future Mobility Challenge 2026. The startup is hunting for practical electric two-wheeler ideas and the talent behind them, and entries must balance function, user experience, aesthetics, and originality while showing they could realistically be turned into a product.

The contest casts a wide net: everyone from school students to working designers and engineers living, studying, or working in Vietnam can enter. Two tracks are on offer — a Professional Design category for those with a design background or experience, and an Open Concept Design track where raw ideas are welcome even without professional drawing skills. AI tools may be used to develop and illustrate entries, but participants must honestly declare them, submissions will be publicly marked as AI-assisted or not, and authors remain responsible for originality and intellectual property.

Registration and submissions run from September 21 to October 27, with jury assessment and community voting following from October 28 to November 4. A top ten will then pitch their concepts at AVES offices, and winners will be announced on December 5, 2026. The prize fund totals 265 million VND, including 175 million in cash, spread across the two main categories plus an AVES People's Choice award.

Notably, AVES frames the contest as more than a paper exercise: the company may carry promising concepts into actual product development, with commercial arrangements to be settled in clear agreements with the authors under Vietnamese law — part of its ambition to shape homegrown urban mobility solutions made by and for Vietnamese users.