According to a report by Reuters, VinFast plans to build electric vehicle battery cells and packs in the United States. “We will build our gigafactory in the US as well,” said Le Thi Thu Thuy, CEO of VinFast Global and vice chairwoman and Vingroup, at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
The Vietnamese carmaker is currently in the midst of expanding its global reach by launching EVs outside of its home country, with the US being one of its key target markets. The VF8 and VF9 are already open for booking there, with three more SUVs revealed in Las Vegas recently.
VinFast was first established in 2017 and started out by selling internal combustion engine cars before eventually rolling out EVs. Despite its relatively young age, the company aims to cease making ICE-powered cars and transition to become fully electric by the end of 2022.
On the matter of its US-based battery plant, VinFast will initially assemble battery packs with cells sourced from suppliers there before eventually producing them. “We have narrowed down from I think, over 50 sites to about three sites,” Thuy Le commented, referring to potential locations for the new facility, which will also include an electric bus factory.
The US plant will be the second after Vingroup – VinFast’s parent company – announced last December that it had started building a battery plant in Vietnam. That plant will initially have a production capacity of 100,000 battery packs yearly, increasing to one million units with an investment of USD174 million (around RM732 million).
VinFast won’t just focus on building batteries outside Vietnam either, as it is also has plans to start producing EVs in the US in 2024. It is also looking to establish another EV plant in Germany to quickly supply its new markets. “The era of shipping cars around the world is over, especially since Covid-19. You must have the factory close to the market in order to win over your customers,” VinFast said in a statement. Vingroup is aiming to sell 42,000 EVs globally in 2022.
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Lets see if US plant will have as horrible safety standards as Vietnam plant.
Have you made it to the plant in Vietnam? Or do you have any insider information?
Safety standards in these backwaters Indochina countries are abysmal to nonexistent, even Nike & Adidas moved out after discovering sweatshop conditions of their producers. From a culture that prioritize SAFETY FIRST, Vietnam is seen as SAFETY NONE.
Do you know that in order to sell cars in the US and Europe, Vinfast cars must meet all the safety standards? Your comment shows your ignorance!
A big glove making company here also sells to USA market but still got cases of workers abuse & taken advantage appearing once in a while, you think USA really cares what happens in our part of the world? Bullcrap! They only want the cheapest price & quick delivery. As pointed above, Nike and many others been practicing double standards for a long time but lately took action due to media spotlight. If nobody important in USA complains, you think they care? LOL.
Proton feels shame to hear it? I guess no!
One should be shameless to call itself national car but can only be afforded by the top 1% of their citizen.
Vietnam is developing so quickly. I have been in Malaysia and Singapore 3 years. When I come back to VN, it is so supprise. It is not 1% of top citizen can buy a car. Now, in Vietnam, almost people can if they want, my friend
The overwhelming majority are still using kapcais & scooters are daily transportation, can see roads chockfull of them when I was there just before Covid.
Cuz traffic jam in Vietnam is huge problem. There is no MRT. Bus is terrible. So the smart choice is scooter
If traffic was so bad, who would buy their national car? And if nobody buys their national car, how can they claim to be a national car brand? And if nobody buys it, how will they be sustainable, or still tap from Viet people tax monies, the same Viet people who cannot afford to buy them?
It is set buy neighbour country media. Vinfast didn’t talk they are national car or something like that. They work for profit. They want to sell in US. In a customer’s point of view, I could to buy one if it’s reasonable price. And maybe, I wil buy a VF7 about 350.000 USD (I guess so)
Do not discount that move guys. We will be having the first flying cars operated on nuclear batteries flying non stop from A to Z and back to A. Along with that, we will build a nuclear battery in Russia. RasPutin must be thanking me for that, hopefully not to be carpet-bombed by the SleepyJoe. Thanks to the brilliant “you name it” appointing Redzuan as the First Move Minister.
You can thank PH for that stupid idiotic moves.