VinFast

Wonder what my wife will choose... Seems like they plan on starting deliveries in June....

REVVL V+ 5G ?

 

I read about the battery subscription on VinFast. The battery is not included in the price. This makes the cars extremely expensive. I guess they are supposed to be luxury cars, so maybe people who would buy them do not care about paying $35-$44 every month for 310 miles/mo plus additional fees for additional miles or $110/mo for the VF 8 and $160/mo for the VF9 for unlimited miles? If it came with a free charge, then I can understand it, but the owner still has to pay for the charge. I hardly ever spend more than $35/mo on my PP's fuel + electricity.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/vinfast-vf8-vf9-battery-subscription-vehicle-pricing-explained/

 

Yup, we got a preorder for the VF8 first night and VF9 the next day. The idea was she's going to pick the one she prefers, and drop the other. Realistically she's probably going to pick the VF8.

Incentives included:

$3000 for VF8
$5000 for VF9

One Harmony One crypto
One NFT for the vehicle
One NFT for the tree they plant in a forest there in Vietnam

ADAS features included as a benefit.

6 night stay at a VinFast resort (4 people, airfare not included).

Yes the lease seems not so cheap, reminds me of what smart/Mercedes Benz did to try to lower cost to customers of their ED ( aka EV).

Even the VF8 is on the large side but a 7 seater would be my dream.

At least since the first models to be delivered are the smaller batteries I may have some hope she'll swing for the VF9. (I'll have to remind her of the extra $2000 discount for the VF9 vs VF8)...

REVVL V+ 5G ?

 

They are setting up retail space at several locations we visited:

The Citadel Outlets
Irvine Spectrum
I believe Westfield Century City but I don't remember/not too sure about this. There was Lucid and Tesla there I was tired from a funeral in San Diego and went out of our way home to check the two preproduction? VF6 and VF9 vehicles they brought there.

I know VF8 test vehicles are around and they are offering test rides at the NY Auto Show....

REVVL V+ 5G ?

 

The smart ED optional battery lease was $80 or so, and its battery pack was smaller than the one in the Rav4 Prime. It reduced the car's price tag by $10k to $12k.

 

Well, it’s July and my wife and I got to see a VF8 at the Garden Grove Historic Main Street Classic Car Show/Meet. It was interesting as the old American classics were mostly surrounded by Americans and the VF8 was mostly surrounded by Asians/Vietnamese. (My wife and I did not spend much time there because our son is sick with COVID). She felt short in the seat, which with her short stature was a concern she brought up to the main rep. Hopefully it goes up the food chain to someone who can make a change to the height adjustment. I told her Vietnamese aren’t very tall so she shouldn’t worry just yet.

They have a new promotion for those who reserve now, not as good as the initial one, but an incentive nonetheless…

They are hoping to start VF8 standard battery model delivery in November.

10 yr/125k mi bumper to bumper warranty. Whoa!

 

Sorry for the late reply. It’s a dead model anyways now but that was a $30k EV that went less than 100 mi. In comparison my 2013 Passion maxed out at just about $20k, went over 200 mi on a tank and didn’t take A LONG TIME to refuel…

 

So tax rules are changing. VinFast is offering to convert our $200 refundable deposit into a binding non-refundable contract so that can try to apply for the current rule credit. IF we fail to get the credit due to something not attributable to us/our income they will rebate the VF9 $7500!

Hmm. What to do?...

REVVL V+ 5G ?

 

2023 VinFast VF 8 Prototype Drive Review: Early Days, But Promising

You really want a new model from a new to the country manufacturer with how big a service network and linked uncertainly into what charging systems?

I'll confess to having done some of those over my almost 60 years of buying cars. All have been disasters.

 

I don't prefer to repeat the reason why we do not have a Tesla Model Y in our backyard because I do not want to tarnish Tesla's reputation, but bottom line was that I don't think they cared to keep us as a customer.

Is it taking a risk? Yes. Thank you for your kind concern. Right now we have three cars registered (street operable) for four drivers and are kind of living with it, as my elderly parents do not go out much at all. I am planning on registering a fourth this week since I have jury duty starting tomorrow. So in respect to needing reliable transportation we can bear a breakdown, maybe even a major breakdown.

We are lucky US headquarters are here in Los Angeles. They have open showrooms around us. They have ICE vehicle experience and contracted Pininfarina to design these models. (Ferrari comes to mind BUT also Cadillac Allante on the negative side). 10 yr/120k mi bumper to bumper warranty. They made no promises regarding tax credit eligibility and yet are now trying their best to give it to us.

They are building manufacturing here in the US. (Of course ours will be manufactured in Vietnam).

They said (not sure if it will come true) they are open to retrofitting newer battery technology into older models. Either way the battery is leased and has a 70% min capacity limit before free replacement.

For $61k I can get a fully loaded VF9 that seats 7, including ADAS, which can pay for many many months of battery lease compared to pricing on a 7 seat Y, or a 7 seat Rivian R1S. I would prefer to spend money on US companies in this geopolitical environment but...

My wife loves to travel and they are going to give a 6 night stay in one of their 5 star resorts for 4. (Airfare not included).

REVVL V+ 5G ?

 

There are concerns with a new company with limited support network, but the charging systems isn't a concern. They'll be using the standards that nearly everybody else is using, so will have access to all but Tesla's network.

 

https://rantnc.com/2022/08/15/vinfast-closes-deal-on-moncure-property/ includes models to be produced there and the planed timeline ,,,, 2 years from now start production. the 5-person midsize VF 8 and 7-passenger VF 9 full size vehicles.

Gads the subsidies I paid for.

 

Do you think it would be better to continue to build their vehicles in Vietnam vs creating jobs here in the US? (I am sort of nervous they’d make a fully autonomous facility and not hire many people)…

Toyota has built at least one factory here in the US, as well as BMW. I thought others as well…


iPad ?

 

Subsidies are always conditional on the company promising to create x number of jobs at average pay rates of y. Don't make the numbers, don't get all the subsidy.

But the infrastructure in roads and train tracks and water and sewage capability to support this factory will have been done and paid for long before that can be determined.

 

That's interesting, as someone in Australia whose friends are largely Chinese.

We don't have Vinfast here at all. I don't think they've even expressed an interest in Australia.

But we have several Chinese brands: MG and LDV (both part of SAIC), GWM and Haval (both part of Great Wall, which will also be launching Ora and Tank here soon), Polestar (part of Geely) and in the next few weeks BYD. Chery is also coming back next year after a seven-or-eight-year absence.

They're all doing well here, but the one demographic they absolutely cannot crack is Chinese people - whether they're immigrants from China or ethnically-Chinese Australians. They will not touch any Chinese-branded car. It's interesting that the American Vietnamese attitude to Vietnamese cars seems so different.

Mind you, you'd struggle to get me into a British car...

 

After the death of Castro, I was hoping the same would be true between Cuba and the USA.

Bob Wilson

 

When it comes to Chinese and ethnically-Chinese people's attitudes to Chinese cars here, it's not political at all. They just don't trust the quality of Chinese cars. I think in a lot of cases this is because they left China a while ago and think it's still the country that they left, so they think that Chinese products are still a bit shoddy, which really isn't the case.

There is also a need among more recent immigrants to be able to tell their friends back in China that they've "made it" here, and have bought a prestige-branded car - I'd love to see an actual demographic breakdown but I'd say that the majority of Porsche, Lamborghini, Maserati and Bentley SUVs in Sydney are driven by fairly recent Chinese immigrants.

 

There's a good VF8 review here.

There's a lot of discussion of battery leasing in the comments.

I get battery leasing in cars with swappable batteries like NIOs, but I think it's a very hard sell in a conventional fixed-battery EV. I can see that being a problem for them.

And I don't know how battery leasing would work with the Inflation Reduction Act grants. Hmmm...