Vietnam's VinFast dreams the American dream, plans swanky factory here

Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker VinFast announced it will start building a plant with an initial investment of $2 billion in the US state of North Carolina this year. The factory will be located in Chatham County’s Triangle Innovation Point, informed VinFast's Chief Executive Officer Le Thi Thu Thuy. The factory is expected to become operational in the second half of 2024.

This factory is the EV maker's first phase of an extensive plan that it has in store for the US. VinFast has investment plans of as much as $6 billion. For this EV plant in particular however, a construction permit is still required,the company shared in a statement.

The factory will have a capacity to produce 1,50,000 electric cars a year, and will also steadily manufacture electric buses and batteries, Thuy added. It will be VinFast’s second vehicle factory after its first in the northern Vietnam port city of Haiphong. The company expects to begin production at its battery plant in the central province of Ha Tinh at the end of this year, she further added. US President Joe Biden also tweeted a statement about VinFast’s North Carolina factory plans, and how it will help in the creation of over 7,000 jobs.

VinFast aims to start delivering electric vehicles in the US, Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands later this year. It has, however, begun domestic deliveries of its first electric cars in December. Prices for its VF8 and VF9 electric SUVs range from $41,000 to $61,000.

The EV company said it is also working with investment banks to prepare for an IPO that would make it one of the first Vietnamese companies to be traded in the United States.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)