Vietnam Car Maker Breaks Ground for U.S. EV Plant

A Vietnamese firm developing a 7,500-employee electric vehicle manufacturing in central North Carolina reached a major milestone Friday when its senior executive joined Gov. Roy Cooper and others for a groundbreaking ceremony.

Last year, VinFast announced plans to develop its first production facility outside of Vietnam in Chatham County, roughly 30 miles (48 kilometres) southwest of Raleigh. According to news outlets, the $4 billion investment would also construct North Carolina’s first vehicle manufacturing factory and the state’s largest-ever, state-backed economic development project in terms of job creation. North Carolina had lost automotive plants to other Southeastern states throughout the years.

(For) “decades, we’ve wanted an automaker in North Carolina, and you know, someone was watching out for us.” “We were just waiting for that EV market,” Cooper remarked during the event on Friday. VinFast, which manufactures fully electric SUVs, plans to establish a manufacturing and assembly factory in 2025 with an initial production capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year.

The company has submitted site plans to the Chatham County government and has been granted county and environmental permissions to commence construction. The state and Chatham County gave VinFast up to $1.25 billion in incentives if businesses met hiring and investment targets. The total includes $450 million set aside by the General Assembly for infrastructure around the plant. VinFast, a car firm founded in 2017, shifted its focus two years ago to electric SUVs and targeted global markets. Since shipping its first batch late last year, the company claims to have delivered 350 of its five-seat variant to consumers in the United States.