VinFast to build factory in North Carolina

The Vietnamese electric car manufacturer VinFast has announced the construction of its first factory in the USA. The factory in Chatham County in the state of North Carolina will produce electric cars, electric buses and batteries on an area of 800 hectares.

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Construction of the first phase of the factory will begin this year, with production scheduled to start in July 2024, according to the manufacturer. The capacity of the first phase of expansion is expected to be 150,000 vehicles per year. Vehicles to be produced at the site include the VF 8 and VF 9 SUV models.

The factory is to be built in the Triangle Innovation Point industrial park in Chatham County. The county is west of the major city of Raleigh, so very central in the US state. The company says that “thousands of jobs” will be created at the plant.

“North Carolina is quickly becoming the center of our country’s emerging, clean energy economy,” said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. “VinFast’s transformative project will bring many good jobs to our state, along with a healthier environment as more electric vehicles take to the road to help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

VinFast first spoke publicly about its plans for a US plant – including a start-up in the second half of 2024 – at CES in January. In an interview a short time later, VinFast CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy indicated that a later stage of expansion would reach up to 250,000 cars. These are only to be sold in North America.

In January, VonFast also mentioned plans for a battery factory in the USA. Battery packs with supplied cells are to be assembled there first and cells are to be manufactured later. At the time, it was said that three of the original 50 potential US locations were still on the shortlist. Whether the battery assembly mentioned above is the battery factory that was actually announced separately or whether it will be built later at another location is not yet clear.

Update 15 July 2022

The Vietnamese electric car manufacturer VinFast is receiving a lavish subsidy package worth 1.2 billion US dollars, currently also 1.2 billion euros, from the state of North Carolina for the construction of its first plant in the USA. This was announced by the company itself.

VinFast will produce electric cars, electric buses and batteries for them at the factory in Chatham County, for which a total investment of around 2 billion US dollars is planned in the first phase, as reported above. Construction is to begin this year, with production scheduled to start in July 2024. The planned capacity is stated at 150,000 vehicles per year.

prnewswire.com, prnewswire.com (update)