I just came back from a typical American “vacation:” four European destinations in ten days. The family parts included checking on my ancient parents in my hometown of Bremen in Northern Germany and the wedding of a cousin (his third) in an even more ancient castle in Eastern Germany. But car/transportation-wise the two other destinations – Copenhagen and Berlin – were the more interesting ones in very different ways. In this column I will concentrate on the Danish capital, in a few weeks I will report about a very special place in the German Hauptstadt.

Transportation

On this trip, this car-obsessed author and his wife atypically travelled mostly by public transportation. And I have to admit, once you make it to the station on time, it is much more relaxing to ride the very quiet and comfortable trains from Copenhagen to Bremen (strangely operated by the Czech railway) and from Magdeburg to Berlin. And despite the recently bad reputation of the punctuality of the Deutsche Bahn, we had no problems.

In Bremen and Copenhagen, the transportation mode of choice is the bicycle. In my hometown it was very much like in the end of the last century when I grew up there: bicycles everywhere and in all directions. That’s what I was used to and it required a bit of a learning curve in…

København

It has been widely publicized in recent years that this town has outranked Amsterdam as the bicycle capital of Europe, but I was not prepared for this. Every hotel here offers bicycles for rent. Our Finnish hotel receptionist warned us: “there are rules here, you will see.” And there were rules. We were repeatedly informed/reprimanded. Every street has a bicycle lane and, where possible, a second lane at left for the fast commuter travel (non-electric!) to pass us dawdling tourist slow pokes. At a pedestrian area or zebra crossing, you have to dismount and push your bike. It took this anarchist cyclist from Bremen half a day to understand the system, but he had to admit it works. BTW, hardly anybody wears a helmet in either town.

On our first evening we sat outside Copenhagen’s premier Hotel Angleterre at the gorgeous Kongens Nytorv square. We couldn’t afford to stay at the Angleterre, but paying an untranslatable amount of Danish kroner for dinner was preferrable to the tourist crowds and the accompanying tourist-trap restaurants at the idyllic Nyhavn (New Harbor) just around the corner. Here my car-eyes noticed two unfamiliar vehicles.

The only car that dared to park right in front of the Angleterre was a red supercar. It was neither Ferrari Red, nor was it an Aston Martin. After ruminating over what it might be, I got up and looked at the badge: it was a Swedish-made Koenigsegg. I had heard of them, but never seen one. But I knew that you have to be really rich to afford one of these machines, which are handmade in very low numbers and sold for seven-digit numbers (euros, not kroner!). We had noticed the wealth in Copenhagen and its suburbs, but had to research this change that occurred recently (not that I would have noticed as a little boy on my first foreign vacations in the 1960s). It is because of Maersk, the largest shipping company in the world, and the pharma industry. Companies like Novo Nordisk (maker of Ozempic) seem to have contributed massively to this small parliamentary monarchy’s current economic health.

During our two-day stay I noticed a lot of mostly European EVs including the electric resurrection of the Renault 4, my first car. It is always interesting to me how some brands have developed completely new platforms for EVs (like Renault and the Korean cars sold in the US and Europe), but others just implant electric engines and batteries into the body of a car made for an ICE (here: Internal Combustion Engine) body. Most of the German manufacturers fall into the latter category, but they are still experimenting.

Also in front of the Angleterre, I noticed a fleet of bright cyan-colored taxis by another manufacturer I could not immediately identify. A closer look at the front with a large V-shaped logo rang a bell. I had seen these cars on the 2022 LA Auto Show; and Car & Driver had tested a model this brand tries to market in USA (it was not a very complimentary review). Have you heard of…

VinFast

It’s Vietnamese and an interesting story. The richest man in Vietnam started this EV car brand, a subsidiary of Vingroup, a sprawling Vietnamese company with interests in hospitality, real estate, education, and plenty more. Other Vingroup subsidiaries include Vinhomes, VinUniversity, VinBigData – you get the idea. Vinhomes built the largest skyscraper in Vietnam, the 1,513-ft, eighty-one story Landmark 81 building which is also the seventeenth-tallest building in the world overall.

Pham Nhat Vuong, the said 58-year-old oligarch, made his first millions in Ukraine of all countries in the 1990s when (state) capitalism took over Eastern Europe, with an instant noodle business! VinFast has sold electric motorcycles and e-scooters in Asian markets including Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, and Kazakhstan for a while. But when they got into the electric car production business in 2017, they started from scratch. It was a bumpy start with a lot of setbacks, and the jury is still out if VinFast will make it on the European and American markets. Interestingly, the two last two US administrations have let VinFast into the domestic market, while preventing their Chinese competitors, who are making big advances in most European countries.

But on July 30, 2026 the Green SM taxi service officially launched a fleet of 600 VinFast electric vehicles – specifically the VF6 and VF8 models – in Copenhagen. This is the ride-hailing company's first expansion into Europe; they already operate across Asia. And by our arrival, less than four weeks later, they were all over the town and highly noticeable due to their bright color. The VinFast VF 6 is an all-electric subcompact crossover front-wheel drive SUV, with a purported driving range of up to 290 miles. The VF 8 (one of two Vinfasts theoretically available in the US) is its all-wheel drive, bigger brother.

Globalism

I am, of course, not a fan of oligarchs, but I can’t help but wish Pham Nhat Vuong good luck in his endeavors. Maybe just in retaliation for the devastation that the US brought to his country. Perhaps not surprisingly, many Vietnamese fled their country after the war (you may remember the term Boat People) not to the US, but to Germany, where they were considered poster child immigrants (hard-working and well-integrated). Maybe even the AfD doesn’t want to kick them out as they want to do it with all other non-whites. While I am writing this, I am hearing with disgust in the radio, that this neo-Nazi party (remember: Elon Musk’s favorite) won the elections in the East German state of Sachsen-Anhalt. Unfortunately, this “foreigners go home” is a development that Europe shares with Trump’s America. While we were in Europe, we saw numerous campaign posters for right-wing parties with this message, including one of a scary-looking blond woman in Denmark.

America has a lot to learn, not only in terms of public and bicycle transportation, but also about globalism. Why does Trump so vigorously forbid Chinese manufacturers from competing on the American car market? Presumably it is to protect the American car industry. But perhaps competition is not the problem. Perhaps the problem lies in isolationism and the insistence on producing oversized, gas-guzzling trucks like the Ford F-150. How about developing truly competitive affordable EVs instead? Ford and GM were on promising paths until recently, when Trump removed subsidies for EVs and the sales numbers went down. They shot themselves in the foot when gas prices exploded – because of who’s war? – soon after. In maybe more far-sighted Europe, where they have lived with high gas prices for a long time, EV sales have been consistently increasing. China is far more advanced in EV production and use than both Western markets.

Back to isolationism and white supremacy. America is as great as it is because of all the people who moved here from all over the world after the European “settlers” massacred the native population. There is a larger world out there – note how many nations are mentioned in this column – of which we are a part. Not to sound naïve, but why can’t we all live together in peace and share our wealth and different experiences and knowledge, even in the spirit of competition? In America, I love to live among the healthy mix of people; and in Europe I love the healthy mix of cars. We need each other and can learn from each other! I can’t wait to be chauffeured to JFK in an electric Chinese taxi – I am sure the driver or his/her parents will have been born in a country far away. Of course, it would be even better if I could take a comfortable, clean, fast, reliable train.