Vietnam’s first export EV, Vinfast VF8, makes shaky but promising US debut

ENCINITAS, CALIF.—Starting a new car company isn’t especially easy. Tesla struggled for years to become self-sustainable, and newer startups like Rivian and Lucid have run into plenty of their own roadblocks. We may be able to add Vinfast to that list. In addition to establishing itself as a new brand, it has an added unfamiliarity factor as these electric vehicles are built in Vietnam, at least until Vinfast’s factory in North Carolina is up and running.

The first batch of Vinfasts has now arrived, and we’ve driven it on the streets north of San Diego. So, how does this new entrant stack up against the midsized electric crossover competition?

Founded in 2017 as part of the conglomerate Vingroup, Vinfast has been building cars for domestic consumption for four years now. It’s developing a full lineup of electric models, but for now just the VF8 crossover and the larger VF9 SUV are confirmed for these shores, with just the VF8 having arrived so far. Vinfast suffered a bit of a setback with its first batch of US VF8s, however, with disappointing EPA range estimates of just 207 miles (333 km) for the Eco version and 191 miles (307 km) for the Pro model.

The first 999 VF8s that Vinfast imported have rather low range efficiency.

Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

This batch of 999 VF8s has been renamed the VF8 City Edition as a result, with leases starting at a competitive $399 a month. (Earlier plans for a battery subscription have been dropped, and for now, all Vinfasts will be leased, not sold outright.) There has also been a change in battery cell supplier (from Samsung SDI to CATL), which Vinfast says means the next shipload of VF8s due to arrive will be capable of up to 264 miles (425 km) for the Eco and 243 miles (391 km) for the Plus version; Vinfast says that people leasing the City Edition will be able to swap it for one of the newer, longer-range versions at the end of their first year with the EV.

I think it’s a fairly handsome car, styled by Italian design house Pininfarina. Both VF8 Eco and VF8 Plus are twin-motor designs, one powering each axle. The VF8 Eco has a combined 350 hp (260 kW) and 368 lb-ft (500 Nm); the Plus boasts 402 hp (300 kW) and 457 lb-ft (620 Nm). Both variants use the same 82 kWh (useable, 88 kWh gross) battery pack. They can fast-charge at up to 160 kW on a DC fast charger, which Vinfast says takes 24 minutes to go from 10-70 percent state of charge.

After a briefing, Vinfast let us loose on the road for a few hours, handing Ars the keys to a VF8 Plus City Edition. And you know what? I came away pleasantly surprised with a car that seemed to be a pretty credible first attempt. Which is to say things mostly worked, except for the bits that didn’t quite.

The drive selector buttons remind me of a Lamborghini, and the central screen as the sole display is reminiscent of both Rivian and Tesla. The fit and finish of our test VF8 was perfectly fine.

Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

Despite a substantial curb weight of 5,732 lbs (2,600 kg), the VF8 Plus can hit 60 mph in 5.5 seconds. It pulls strongly from higher speeds as well—not always an EV’s strongest suit. But I was hard-pressed to tell much of a difference between the different drive modes of Eco, Normal, and Sport. The VF8’s trip computer showed that even over the last few hundred miles, this EV averaged a mere 2.3 miles/kWh. That’s not good, but it’s also roughly what Audi achieved for its first-generation e-tron SUV, which was similarly heavy. I’ll reserve judgment on the powertrain until we’ve had a chance to try the non-City Edition.

The electric power steering is entirely devoid of feedback, and the turning circle is large. The front seats feel overstuffed and lack side bolsters; consequently, this is not an EV you feel encouraged to rag. There’s some roll when you corner, and the ride can be a little bouncy at times, although not quite to the same degree I experienced in the Rivian R1S last year. Our test car was mostly rattle-free, although there was an occasional thunk from the drivetrain under deceleration.

I think Vinfast deserves some props for its infotainment system. The user interface is intuitive enough that we picked it up quickly. The left side of the screen is permanently dedicated to showing an outline of the car—touch the relevant bit (like a side mirror or the sunroof), and it pulls up the relevant settings tab. Vinfast has also incorporated Cerence’s excellent voice assistant, which worked almost as well as it does in current Mercedes-Benz or BMW systems, albeit with noticeably longer processing time to interpret your command.

The left-most section of the screen always displays this car outline; it’s how you access settings. CarPlay runs on the right.

Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

The infotainment also includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, something neither Tesla nor Rivian have chosen to implement yet. And the overall touch-based UI is more responsive than the system that ships in the Volkswagen ID.4. The video quality of the backup camera left something to be desired, however, with a noticeably bad frame rate. Our test VF8 did not appear capable of blowing anything other than cold or hot air—cold if the temperature was set anything below 80° F, hot air coming beyond that point. The seat heater on its lowest setting was quite powerful.

The VF8 comes with a full complement of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and some of the warning chimes can become annoying. Unhelpfully, every time the car wakes from sleep, it resets back to the default ADAS settings, so you have to go through the process of turning individual components off (like the constant speed limit chimes or the lane departure system) lest you be annoyed. The adaptive cruise control and lane keeping worked well on the highway, and there appears to be a gaze-tracking driver-monitoring camera on the steering column.