All right.
Let's have some fun.
Holy crap,
90 Kilometers an hour
within a second.
In California right now,
you will find this.
It's called Vinfast.
It's a showroom.
They're opening up at malls
across the state,
across the country.
I'm flying to Vietnam
to test
drive the car,
and I'm getting access
inside its factory.
There it is.
That is one battery pack.
To try to understand.
Can this Vietnamese
car company
make it in the U.S.?
I chose this car for myself
I'm also meeting Americans
who have already committed
to buying one.
When did you learn
about Vinfast
in LA Auto Show
I saw their offerings
and we were looking for an SUV
And meeting
some of its engineers.
It's a massive challenge,
but I think we are doing
good as we have do.
But before I go
on, you should know this.
Five years ago,
this company
didn't even exist
in just a few years.
It's become one of the best
selling cars
here in this country.
Now it's opening up
a factory in North Carolina,
getting praised by
President Biden.
And the company is planning
to go public in the U.S..
I need to save the energy,
What is Vinfast?
And can it
be the next Tesla?
This is the VF8.
It's the newest model.
Let's go inside
and check it out.
Has that brand new fresh
car smell.
This is a really interesting
wheel, too.
It's not a full circle.
It kind of flattens out
at the bottom.
All right.
Let's have some fun
Holy crap,
90 Kilometers an hour
within a second.
this car is so crazy.
Like you naturally
just want to drive.
Oh, my God.
I've never accelerated
that quickly
before in a car.
I'm sitting inside
a Vinfast vehicle.
And the first thing I notice
is this.
This is a screen.
It's a tablet.
Reminds me
very much of the Tesla
so far,
except Tesla,
the ones I've been in
are a horizontal screen
like this.
This one is very much like
a vertical screen.
Reminds me of your phone,
your iPhone, your Samsung.
And here you go.
Here's your here's
your tablet.
You got your apps,
you got the ability
to call someone.
You can see
how much the car is charged.
So my car battery,
which the pack
is, of course, under
the vehicle,
is at 73% right now.
Let's go home.
You've got music car apps.
You can see,
I guess, different features,
different parts of the car.
Oh,
I think
I accidentally
just open the trunk.
By the way,
if you're enjoying
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I've heard that you can use
voice command
kind of like
we do with Google or Alexa.
So let's try it.
Hey, Vinfast
uh,
Hey, Vinfast
Sorry,
I don't know what I said,
but she thinks that
I want
I don't know what I said,
but she thinks that
I want the air conditioning
to crank up
hey, Vinfast stop.
I better get out of this car
before I overdo
any of the buttons.
I come to this luxury
mall here in Ho Chi Minh City
where I just found this.
This is a Vinfast showroom.
And what's kind of
interesting is upstairs
they have
then VinPearl,
which is part of their hotel
luxury groups.
They have
residential housing
around the neighborhood.
And then here
they're selling the car,
the Vinfast showroom.
They've got
two cars on display
as well
as some electric scooters.
One of those
electric scooters
will cost
about 1,700 dollars.
So how did this company
take on Toyota, Hyundai
and Ford,
even though
it was only an idea
five years ago. To answer,
you can probably start
by looking at this man.
He's Vietnam's
first billionaire
and chairman of
VinGroup a massive
conglomerate here
in Vietnam,
which includes real estate
owning
and operating
universities and
some of the country's
most luxurious hotels.
I mean,
this company is massive.
It touches so many
different industries,
and it decided
to launch a car.
Production started in 2018
and by 2020
the cars were on the road.
At time
Tesla has had a market cap
bigger than most
other car companies
combined, probably
because people see
electric vehicles
as the future.
And Tesla is perceived
as a forward
thinking, just cool
car company.
So I've just arrived
to Vinfast's factory.
It's about 2 hours
from Hanoi.
I'm really excited
to see what's inside.
I've been to
a Tesla factory,
but not any other car
factory, especially EV car.
It's here
where I meet one of Vinfast’s
chief engineers.
Market is very competitive.
There is Tesla
very good U.S.
cars and
European cars as well.
It has a 10 years warranty
which is
very good for the customer.
Battery we will be
proposals for leasing
So the factory
is absolutely massive.
We have to actually take
a buggy to get around.
And this is all very new,
only a couple of years old.
And to get from one side
to another,
even by buggy,
has taken about 10 minutes.
This is what they mean
when they say
90% automation.
You don't see that
many humans.
In fact,
you have to look a while
just to see a person
working and this factory.
Is fully functional
right now.
And now I've come to
General Assembly.
This is where the cars come
for the little parts,
the hood of the trunk,
the lights,
the things like that.
This is absolutely crazy,
the magnitude
of this factory,
to be honest,
I've been to
the Gigafactory.
This is so much bigger
than that.
This is insane.
Because the factory
is pretty much brand new.
It actually smells like
I don't know, it's
it's very airy.
There's a lot of airflow
going inside
the lighting is really nice
So this is the General
Assembly shop.
This is where the cars come
after
they've been
elementary built.
But I'm really interested
to go see the batteries
because that's ultimately
where an EV car is born.
So I've just arrived
to the battery shop.
The battery packs up.
This is really
what differentiates
this company
from another car company
because it's
battery powered.
So this isn't really
for security.
you have to do fingerprint
to enter the battery pack
there it is.
These are the
actual battery packs
that will be used
in the car.
A lot of this machinery,
a lot of the robotics
comes from the US.
and comes from Sweden.
It's brought here to Vietnam
where they use the machinery
to build the battery packs
and then they're installed
in the car here
for the Vietnam market.
This factory is
operating 24 hours
a day,
which is pretty common
for factories.
They told me that
this in particular
is 80% automation.
So again,
you don't see
a lot of people
here in the battery shop
and it's
absolutely fascinating
how many batteries
they are able to to produce here.
I'm told that they produce
70,000 battery
packs per year
here,
not just in this
battery shop
across this factory.
So there it is.
That is one battery pack.
And now imagine them
creating 70,000 of those
every year
that's considered one.
It is really fascinating
how the process is done,
how many battery
packs they're able to output
in a relatively short
amount of time.
It's also interesting,
these battery packs
are not just being used
for the vehicles.
They also build
these e-scooters.
There's a term often used in
China called leapfrogging
it means when a company
can bypass
traditional stages
of development
and pass
established companies
who are just tending
to move slower
by the nature of their size.
Leapfrogging is often done
through
technological innovation.
So while major car companies
try to catch up
and meet a surge in demand
for electric vehicles,
it does make me wonder
Vinfast is so new
and it's a tiny company
compared to
established players.
But is that
a weakness or a strength?
I come to
this Vinfast
event where I see
all these young people.
They're pretty much
the same age
and wearing the same shirt,
all of them
sitting in their brand new
in fast cars.
Originally,
I thought they were Vinfast
employees,
but they actually say
they're Vinfast customers.
They've just bought their first
Vinfast
This is your car? Yeah.
Why do you buy Vinfast?
New models are very good
and very nice
I need to save the energy,
so I chose the electric car.
When did you buy this car?
around one week. Do you like it?
Yeah, Nice
this is my car
When did you buy it?
Last month.
Oh, you like it?
Yes, I very like it
It still smells brand new.
It's nice. Yeah.
Why did you buy Vinfast?
Because Vinfast is very affordable
And this is
very first
electric car
in Vietnam.
And we like to
experience the new technologies
Guys, thanks so much
for watching this video.
Let me know in the comments.
What do you think?
Do you think this company
could take on Tesla
while you're at it?
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