diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/html.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/html.ts
index 1731a8aad57e5e..6abc7b4309fd0f 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/html.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/html.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import path from 'path'
 import { Plugin } from '../plugin'
 import { ViteDevServer } from '../server'
-import { OutputAsset, OutputBundle, OutputChunk } from 'rollup'
+import { OutputAsset, OutputBundle, OutputChunk, RollupError } from 'rollup'
 import {
   cleanUrl,
   generateCodeFrame,
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ import {
   AttributeNode,
   NodeTransform,
   NodeTypes,
-  ElementNode
+  ElementNode,
+  CompilerError
 } from '@vue/compiler-dom'
 
 const htmlProxyRE = /\?html-proxy&index=(\d+)\.js$/
@@ -114,14 +115,7 @@ export async function traverseHtml(
       nodeTransforms: [visitor]
     })
   } catch (e) {
-    const parseError = {
-      loc: filePath,
-      frame: '',
-      ...formatParseError(e, filePath, html)
-    }
-    throw new Error(
-      `Unable to parse ${JSON.stringify(parseError.loc)}\n${parseError.frame}`
-    )
+    handleParseError(e, html, filePath)
   }
 }
 
@@ -148,17 +142,44 @@ export function getScriptInfo(node: ElementNode): {
   return { src, isModule, isAsync }
 }
 
-function formatParseError(e: any, id: string, html: string): Error {
-  // normalize the error to rollup format
-  if (e.loc) {
-    e.frame = generateCodeFrame(html, e.loc.start.offset)
-    e.loc = {
+/**
+ * Format Vue @type {CompilerError} to @type {RollupError}
+ */
+function formatParseError(
+  compilerError: CompilerError,
+  id: string,
+  html: string
+): RollupError {
+  const formattedError = { ...compilerError } as RollupError
+  if (compilerError.loc) {
+    formattedError.frame = generateCodeFrame(
+      html,
+      compilerError.loc.start.offset
+    )
+    formattedError.loc = {
       file: id,
-      line: e.loc.start.line,
-      column: e.loc.start.column
+      line: compilerError.loc.start.line,
+      column: compilerError.loc.start.column
     }
   }
-  return e
+  return formattedError
+}
+
+function handleParseError(
+  compilerError: CompilerError,
+  html: string,
+  filePath: string
+) {
+  const parseError = {
+    loc: filePath,
+    frame: '',
+    ...formatParseError(compilerError, filePath, html)
+  }
+  throw new Error(
+    `Unable to parse HTML; ${compilerError.message}\n at ${JSON.stringify(
+      parseError.loc
+    )}\n${parseError.frame}`
+  )
 }
 
 /**