Vietnamese EV maker VinFast delays its first car deliveries to US

Vietnam's electric vehicle maker VinFast has delayed its first batch of car deliveries to the US from December to January due to the holiday season in the country. “We are currently signing sales contracts with our customers and will hand over vehicles in January according to their needs," the company said in a statement. It will hand over the VF8 models to the customers.

The VF8, along with the VF9 electric vehicles made their grand debut at the LA Auto show in 2021. VinFast has vowed to end the production of gas-powered models rapidly. It delivered its first locally produced EV in Vietnam in December 2021. In late November, the company said that it needed to delay EV rollouts in Europe and Canada to early 2023 due to the global shortage of semiconductors.

Earlier, the automaker claimed to have received 24,000 orders globally within 48 hours of opening reservations, paving the way for Vietnam to become one of the few countries producing fully electric vehicles. In its next batch, the automaker aims to ship about 5,000 EVs to the US, Canada, and Europe.

The automaker also recently debuted the VF6 and VF7 electric models, hoping to become the EV manufacturer for everyone with models in B, C, D, and E auto segments.

EV maker VinFast already has its US headquarters in Los Angeles and an R&D center in San Francisco. It is set to begin production in the US from July of 2024. VinFast's investments plans combine to as much as $6 billion and this factory is the EV maker's first phase of an extensive plan that it has in store for the US. The factory will have a capacity of 1,50,000 electric cars annually, and will also gradually be equipped to manufacture electric buses and batteries.