VinFast, the Vietnamese automaker that’s set its sights on expanding to the United States, is serious about success. We recently embarked on a grand tour of the empire contained within Vingroup, VinFast’s parent company, in its home country, and its omnipresent grasp on Vietnam demonstrated that the resources exist to make such an endeavor possible. Now we’ve scoped out one of six of its newest showrooms that opened on July 14 in California. Located prominently in Santa Monica, VinFast hopes this highly visible location will serve as a harbinger that will introduce its lineup of all-electric cars to a new market.
The location we visited had the modern, minimalistic design that’s become familiar for most tech-industry-adjacent storefronts. When we visited, VinFast had some swatches on display showing off paint and interior colors along with some merch. A VinFast VF9 prototype sat in the center of the room which appears to offer enough space for a total of two or three vehicles total.
At first, the VinFast VF8, which we had a chance to drive in Vietnam, and VF9 crossovers will be the only two models available from this location. The lineup will soon expand to include the subcompact VF 6 and compact VF 7 SUVs. Vehicles sold in the United States will be built at an assembly plant near Raleigh, North Carolina and production is slated to begin in July, 2024.
VinFast says that it will offer three tiers of brick-and-mortar locations in the United States. The Santa Monica showroom is what it calls a 1S store, which means that it’s based in a shopping center with the purpose of exposing consumers to VinFast’s products and selling cars to customers. The second tier of stores are called 2S and will offer parts and services for VinFast owners and support 1S locations in the region. The largest VinFast centers will be called 3S stores and will closely resemble traditional dealerships, offering vehicles for sale, parts sales, and service for customer cars. A total of 60 stores will be opened with 30 planned for California alone.
Early adopters will receive perks for reserving vehicles early. The VinFast Charged-Up incentives program offers one year of VinFast’s Smart Driving that includes Level 2+ advanced driver-assistance systems and a choice of three years of complimentary unlimited charging with Electrify America or a free 11.5-kW Level 2 home charger with a $1,200 credit for installation. The deal will be available until September 30, 2022.
The new Santa Monica showroom further reinforces how determined VinFast is about its intentions of breaking into the US market. Other locations that opened at the same time include Hillsdale, San Diego, Commerce, Berkeley, and Corte Madera. Despite the positive signs of VinFast’s continued advances, some caution is still warranted given the unknown nature of the product. As we’ve said time and time again, building cars is a hard business, and only time will tell if these new EVs will be right for their intended buyers.
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