N E W K I D O N T H E B LO CK By Elana Scherr
Vim, Vigor, and Vin Vietnam’s first car company is going all-electric, and worldwide, at full speed. The Fast in the VinFast name is an acronym in Viet-
namese, but it’s not lost on us, or the company’s founders, that in English it suggests something done quickly. The new Vietnamese automotive brand was announced in the fall of 2017, and barely a year later, VinFast had three gasoline-powered cars in development and an electric-scooter factory. By the summer of 2019, the company had built an 827-acre complex in Hai Phong and was delivering its first cars. In 2021, founder CA R AND D RI VE R ~ JU NE 2022
Pham Nhat Vuong announced that VinFast would begin pivoting to EVs. Now it’s selling electric scooters, electric buses, and the VF e34, a small electric SUV, with promises of two larger versions to come, the VF8 and the VF9. The mid-size, five-seat VF8 and the seven-seat VF9 will not only come to the U.S. market but will be built here, in a new factory at a 1976-acre North Carolina site. The goal, says Pham, is to make VinFast a recognizable name worldwide and, you guessed it, do it fast.
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