The Vietnamese electric car maker, VinFast announces that it will cut around 80 jobs in North America. It includes its chief financial officer in the US. The automaker continues to aim to want a piece of the US EV market pie. The company launched two all-electric vehicles in North America, the VF 8 five-seater crossover and the VF 9 three-row SUV. Where the VF 8 will be the first in line to be delivered to customers.
VinFast previously announced that its operations in North America will be combined under a single entity headquartered in Los Angeles and that the first deliveries of its VF 8 all-electric SUV have been delayed to the second half of February because the software had to be updated. In other words, the carmaker, which is part of Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate and backed by the country’s richest person, is yet to get its models into the hands of American and Canadian customers.The source says that the restructuring affects the Vietnamese company’s offices in Canada and the US, with Rodney Haynes, VinFast’s CFO in the United States, leaving his position.
The company said in a comment for Bloomberg News that the restructuring was necessary to provide better service to customers in the region. “This also leads to the streamlining of our North American operations and there are certain departments affected by this,” the EV maker said.
EV models
Both models, VF 8 and VF 9 offer all-wheel drive and a ten-year warranty that includes the battery, with prices starting at $59,000 for the VF 8 and $83,000 for the VF 9 respectively. The Vietnamese EV maker was founded in 2017 and wants to expand further onto the American market, with two smaller models, the VF 6 and VF 7, prepped for launch in the United States in March 2023. The automaker is also waiting for regulatory approval on its proposed $4-billion battery and EV factory in North Carolina, which if, built, will qualify its models for the federal tax credits currently offered for US-made electric vehicles. VinFast has announced that it will offer an early-bird reservation program. If a buyer applies a refundable $200 deposit on VinFast’s upcoming two-row VF 8 SUV by April 5, 2022, the company will provide the reservation, holder with a $3,000 voucher to use toward the vehicle purchase. At the recent CES show in Las Vegas, VinFast said the VF 8 will start at $41,000 with no battery pack. You have to lease the battery separately. VinFast will also produce and sell the three-row VF 9 with a starting price of $56,000. Customers dropping a refundable $200 deposit on the larger SUV will be eligible for a $5,000 voucher.
