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I think South Carolina is getting the better EV plant in the Carolinas with the new Scout Motors plant on the north side of the Columbia metro. Rugged looking 4 wheel drive all electric vehicles will be gobbled up by the US market and the new brand has nostalgia + backed as a brand by the world's largest automaker that already has experience in the US market and building EVs. SC will soon have EV production by BMW, Volvo, and Scout.
NC has not been a popular location for vehicle assembly plants in the southeast from proven manufacturers, so I get why we took a chance on Vinfast.... but they are a major long shot IMO. The poor EPA range rating for their initial vehicle shows they are moving way too fast. They should have been able to replicate an EPA range test themselves to not get caught off guard. Being nearly 60 miles off your range commitments in marketing materials isn't a great look. Then spinning the vehicle as a "City Edition" to try to save face.... consumers just don't seem to be buying into it... even in their launch market of CA that embraces EVs. They are doing steep price cuts (which wouldn't be needed if the car had a ton of demand) and heavy marketing in CA to find buyers of the remaining 855 City Editions vehicles that haven't been delivered.
Yep. VinFast IMO is only slightly less speculative than Boom. But that's saying very little considering the chance of Boom coming to fruition is approximately (or exactly) zero.
I think South Carolina is getting the better EV plant in the Carolinas with the new Scout Motors plant on the north side of the Columbia metro. Rugged looking 4 wheel drive all electric vehicles will be gobbled up by the US market and the new brand has nostalgia + backed as a brand by the world's largest automaker that already has experience in the US market and building EVs. SC will soon have EV production by BMW, Volvo, and Scout.
NC has not been a popular location for vehicle assembly plants in the southeast from proven manufacturers, so I get why we took a chance on Vinfast.... but they are a major long shot IMO. The poor EPA range rating for their initial vehicle shows they are moving way too fast. They should have been able to replicate an EPA range test themselves to not get caught off guard. Being nearly 60 miles off your range commitments in marketing materials isn't a great look. Then spinning the vehicle as a "City Edition" to try to save face.... consumers just don't seem to be buying into it... even in their launch market of CA that embraces EVs. They are doing steep price cuts (which wouldn't be needed if the car had a ton of demand) and heavy marketing in CA to find buyers of the remaining 855 City Editions vehicles that haven't been delivered.
Don't forget Daimler has TWO big assembly plants in North Carolina for Freightliner and Western Star trucks. (Mt. Holly and Cleveland, NC.) That doesn't get the media attention like car plants do...
Also, Mack Trucks and the U.S. arm of Volvo Trucks (which owns Mack) are HQ'd in Greensboro. There is no assembly there, but they do provide customer support in addition to running the company.
Also, Mack Trucks and the U.S. arm of Volvo Trucks (which owns Mack) are HQ'd in Greensboro. There is no assembly there, but they do provide customer support in addition to running the company.
Right, that is a very small # of jobs compared to an assembly plant but that is something to note.
Daimler Truck's Co-HQ is in Fort Mill, SC just outside Charlotte which is a similar setup to what Mack/Volvo has in Greensboro. Daimler also has a big parts manufacturing/distribution center in Gastonia, NC, their school bus division (Thomas) is based in High Point, NC and their custom chassis division (FedEx Trucks, etc) is in Gaffney, SC.
So even though we may not have as much "auto" assembly, we are the predominant location for the OEM trucking industry.
(Note Daimler controls ~ 40% of the truck market and Mack/Volvo has ~ 15%.)
In positive news, Vinfast has announced an SPAC merger to go public and get the funding needed to build an auto brand.
In bad news, the media has started getting their hands on their first car without the oversight of a "handler" from the company. This is allowing them to drive the car in real world conditions and the reviews are ranging from "it is ok and has some bugs to it is a terrible car." Also, scanning the latest postings on the Vinfast operated forum for car-owners... most threads by people that have taken delivery are negative on charging issues / not being able to charge overnight and software issues resulting in long waits for a mobile technician to visit their home. Posters are getting openly hostile at the company about lack of communications and leaving them with broken cars / threatening lemon lawsuits.
Will be interesting to see if the SPAC gives them the capital to improve quality.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast said it's recalling all of its first batch of vehicles shipped to the U.S. in 2022.
The recall follows a safety warning issued by the national highway safety administration.
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