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Bouldergramp

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 15, 2018
Messages
188
Location
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From today's Wall Street Journal:

"The EV company, established in 2017 in Vietnam, plans to sell two all-electric sport-utility vehicles in the U.S. to start: a midsize SUV, called the VF 8, that starts at $40,700, and a larger VF 9, starting at $55,500. U.S. buyers can place orders now with deliveries expected to start at the end of 2022.

Unlike other EV rivals in the U.S., VinFast has a unique business model in which buyers pay one price for the vehicle, but then lease the battery for a monthly fee. The company offers two battery-subscription plans, costing anywhere from $35 to $160 a month, depending on how much the owner wants to drive, the model purchased and the type of battery.

The fee includes maintenance of the battery and replacement when charging capacity drops below 70% of its original capacity."

Sounds a little strange to me.
 
Absolutely not!
Made in Vietnam!
From a company, no one has heard of!
For a price that sounds high IMO!
And monthly fees!
For anyone interested in this venture I have the title to the Brooklyn bridge I'd like to sell cheap ;)
I might buy a shirt made in Vietnam but not something like a vehicle, and a very high-tech vehicle to boot(or so I'd assume).
 
So I have no issue with Vietnamese cars - Vinfast is a huge company, and they've been around for awhile. I recall when people said the same thing about Japanese cars, and then Korean cars. Now both of those are some of the best cars money can buy, especially for reliability.

But as far as separate battery? I agree, I don't think that will work in the US - the guys on insideEVs also have talked over this issue, and I don't think they think it will work either. The British guy on inside EVs had something like this for one of his vehicles - I guess some early companies did that in Europe, but even there, it doesn't sound like it worked out well. The company ended up offering him a buy-out later for the battery.
 
The battery subscription model has been around for about 10 years. There is nothing wrong with it in principle - the devil is in the implementation. It may appeal to those who fear EV battery degradation, if the monthly payment ends up being reasonable. I agree that the odds of it working out are a bit long....
 
I did watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8I6waf_1RU the other day on them.

I did reply to https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=621131#p621131 awhile ago.
 
The VinFast VF8 Is Simply Not Ready for America
The electric-car startup brought me to its Vietnam headquarters to drive its first EV meant for the U.S. market. It was the most bizarre experience of my life.
https://jalopnik.com/vinfast-vf8-electric-car-first-drive-not-ready-for-u-s-1849892217
 
cwerdna said:
The VinFast VF8 Is Simply Not Ready for America
The electric-car startup brought me to its Vietnam headquarters to drive its first EV meant for the U.S. market. It was the most bizarre experience of my life.
https://jalopnik.com/vinfast-vf8-electric-car-first-drive-not-ready-for-u-s-1849892217
Holy crap, that link read like a book, interesting but many many pages, nice scenery photos though. I've said it before but I personally would have reservations about purchasing something as high-tech as a vehicle, an EV at that, from a Vietnamese company and from reading the article and looking at photos of the car it looks like cosmetically it looks promising but function wise it has a long way to go.
Good luck to them though, I hope they get their act together but I personally don't think it will happen.
 
Weird:

First VinFast VF 8 EVs reach U.S. shores; shame about the range
SUV is now EPA-rated at 179 miles on a charge
https://www.autoblog.com/2023/01/04/vinfast-vf8-electric-vehicle-range/
 
Noticed https://vinfastevents.com/ was in my email for https://slickdeals.net/e/210461-official-auto-car-ride-drive-events. They are in Alameda, CA for several days, last day being today (1/22/23). If I select that day, it seems they still have plenty of time slots left (16 of them). I don't plan on going since it's about a 60 mile drive for me.

From the address, I'm guessing they're using the former navy base.
 
Vietnam EV maker VinFast delays U.S. car deliveries until late February
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/03/vietnam-ev-maker-vinfast-delays-us-car-deliveries-until-late-february.html
 
https://community.vinfastauto.us/vinfast-brand/vf-8-city-edition-test-drive/ has some display and test drive EVents, all in California. Some have already passed.
 
Media embargo I think expired on 5/12. All reviews but one I've read so far say it's bad.
https://insideevs.com/photos/854178/2023-vinfast-vf8-city-edition-first-drive/
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a43875030/2023-vinfast-vf8-first-drive-unacceptable/
https://jalopnik.com/everyone-agrees-the-vinfast-vf8-is-very-very-bad-1850432490
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1139636_2023-vinfast-vf-8-city-edition-test-drive-review

https://electrek.co/2023/05/12/vinfast-vf-8-city-edition-first-drive/ is the only mildly positive one I've seen, so far.
 
There's a Vinfast dealer near me, so I looked them up. Sounds like a catastrophically bad company with an even worse product. Considering there's a Tesla dealer about 5 miles away that sells better cars much cheaper, I expect the VF showroom to be back up for lease fairly soon. My interest in the dealership extends to the point where I am checking out the office furniture to see if there is anything I want to pick up when they go out of business and sell off the furniture.
 
Reviews of this appear to be unanimously--and substantially--negative. Silly things like blinkers not working properly, pedal delay (in some cars only), horrific ride, etc.

I wish them luck, but there is absolutely no reason to buy one yet. The company will have to eat billions in loss until it's got a decent product. Starting car companies is not easy.
 
Investors must not have driven the car:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ev-startup-vinfasts-stock-rally-pushes-value-higher-than-gm-ford-c9dac0e6?st=20w4ultlhn4hqna&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
 
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