VinFast Pushes Back Date for Its New North Carolina Factory
VinFast is back in the news with issues, this time related to its planned factory in North Carolina. The Vietnamese automaker recently announced that its 2024 opening date would be pushed back to 2025 but offered no explanation or details other than to call it a “procedural delay.”
The $4 billion facility is planned in phases and is expected to create thousands of jobs in the area. Split into three main sectors, VinFast’s plant will host battery production, EV production, and a sector for suppliers. A multi-billion-dollar facility is a risk for a new-to-America automaker, but it opens the door for federal tax credits on VinFast’s vehicles.
Earlier this month, the automaker delivered its first 45 vehicles to customers in California, and the second round of VF 8 EVs is expected during the second quarter. This factory delay comes after vehicle delays and a round of U.S. layoffs for VinFast. Though it shipped 999 VF 8 EVs to the United States late last year, VinFast delayed deliveries while it completed software updates.
Assuming VinFast meets its schedule, the larger three-row VF 9 EV will land later this year. The automaker has also confirmed that two smaller EVs would arrive after the two SUVs, including a subcompact VF 6 and compact VF 7.
[Image: VinFast]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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So they shipped 999 (not 1000) cars here but have only delivered 45? What's the story there? Are they not sold, or are they still not roadworthy? Hard to believe the tax credits makes it more cost effective to build here rather than use cheap communist labor in the workers paradise of Vietnam. Who fails first, Vinfast or Lordstown?
I'm glad North Carolina has established some protections in case VinFast reneges.
recruiting the youtube builders that use hand tools and bamboo? smart!
VINFAST...WHAT A DISGRACE!!!