VinFast is about to take a giant leap forward in its plan to conquer the North American market. The Vietnamese automaker will start work on its $4 billion factory in North Carolina next week with the the aim of producing its first U.S.-built vehicles in 2025.
The auto arm of Vingroup was founded in 2017 and announced its plans to open a U.S. factory last year. The firm is already importing Asian-built VF 8 SUVs to the U.S. but having a North American base is core to the company’s expansion plans, and could potentially help it sidestep new rules that prevent foreign-built cars qualifying for EV tax credits.
VinFast was awarded a $1.2 billion incentive package from North Carolina, plus further support from city and council officials close to the 1,800-acre site at the Triangle Innovation Point in Chatham County. The firm says the state’s first EV plant is designed to produce 150,000 vehicles per year in its first phase and will generate thousands of new jobs for the area. But the fact that VinFast boasts about its flagship Hai Phong, Vietnam, plant being 90 percent automated suggests that many of the processes at the U.S. site will also be handled by machines.
Related: Not So VinFast, Vietnamese Automaker Floundering With Just 128 Registrations
Let’s hope that VinFast has ironed out some of the bugs from its electric SUVs by the time the first examples start rolling off the production line two years from now, because it’s safe to say that the company hasn’t had an easy ride so far. Apart from disappointing EPA electric range figures, confusing price changes, a recall and bad press about layoffs and offering journalists money to drive its cars, VinFast has also had to endure a savaging by reviewers who collectively handed the VF 8 a real kicking, declaring it way off the pace.
And it seems like buyers are paying attention to all this bad news. Only 128 VF 8 crossovers were registered in the U.S. between January and May of this year according to data from Experian, and that despite nearly 3,000 of the EVs having been shipped to the country during that time. Well, at least those 1,800 acres in North Carolina will give VinFast plenty of space to park unwanted cars.