VinFast plans 30 showrooms in California and first solid-state battery EV

Staying true to its name, VinFast lives in the fast lane of business expansion and technology development. For a company that was only founded in 2017 it’s a huge achievement to have been selling actual cars for over two years already. But VinFast has ambitious owners and is expanding globally bringing new cars to new markets and now it sets its sights on the US.

The secret sauce to the company’s success is its funding. Unlike the majority of startups, VinFast didn’t need to worry about money because it is part of Vietnam’s largest conglomerate - the Vingroup. This multi-industry and multi-billion organization doesn’t need outside funding and its relentless progress is the result.

The company is opening six new showrooms across the US next week with 30 planned to open in California alone by the end of this year. All showrooms are based in shopping centers and the first ones open up in San Diego, Berkeley, Santa Monica, Commerce, San Mateo and Corte Madera. At some point all cars sold in the US will come from its North Carolina factory which is currently under construction.

First two cars to be sold are the VF8 crossover that starts at $40,700 and the VF9 SUV starting at $55,500. The larger VF9 can achieve 369 miles with the 123kWh optional battery pack.

VinFast operates a “battery as service” business model which means you are buying a car but renting the battery at a monthly fee. This fee ranges from $35 a month for the smaller 92 kWH pack to $110 for unlimited mileage and larger 123 kWH battery. Not everyone will like that idea but the company stresses the battery can be replaced free of charge at any time if it fails.

VinFast is pushing not only sales of affordable cars but the technology development as well. To prove its commitment it has signed a strategic partnership with Taiwan based ProLogium which is so far the only company in the world that has reached mass production of solid state batteries.

It has to be pointed out that it happened at its automated pilot production line but nonetheless it allowed the company to produce 8,000 solid state EV batteries. All those batteries were sent to global EV manufacturers for evaluation and it seems VinFast was first to get back with positive test results.

ProLogium agreed (for undisclosed sum) to provide VinFast with solid-state battery cells for its vehicles beginning 2024. The batteries will be manufactured at ProLogium’s new manufacturing site which is to be opened next year. Both companies confirmed that a significant portion of the factory capacity will be devoted to manufacturing batteries for VinFast. At the same time the companies are discussing the possibility of opening a joint-venture solid-state battery manufacturing plant in Vietnam.

We didn’t need to wait long to hear tangible solid-state battery news. Every automaker is trying to either find a reliable supplier or develop them in-house. As for the suppliers - there are only few out there and ProLogium seems to be the most advanced of them all. Now we have a date when the first electric cars with solid-state batteries will come to the showroom next door - 2024.

This isn't progress anymore, this is truly a full speed revolution, by the time you finish reading this there may be another company making a similar announcement, QuantumScape is not far off with its scaling up plans for production. It was always just a question of time and now that time is here. Will the solid-state batteries live up to the hype?

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