VinFast VF 9 VinFast
VinFast, the Vietnamese automaker building its first North American assembly plant in Chatham County, has recalled its first shipment of nearly 1,000 electric SUVs shipped to the United States.
According to a May 18 recall report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the problem is the car’s screen, called a multifunction head unit, unintentionally going off while the vehicle is moving or stationary.
In its recall statement, VinFast explained that if the head unit malfunctioned, “the driver cannot see either the indicator lights on the display or the indicator symbols, which increases the risk of an accident.”
VinFast said there were no known incidents related to the issue.
The recall affects VinFast’s VF8 City Edition, the only model the company has released in the United States to date. In December, VinFast shipped 999 VF8s from Vietnam to California, but as of last week the company said it had only shipped 310 to customers.
Even before the recall, many critics were critical of the VF8’s performance, citing software bugs and an unusually bumpy ride.
According to website InsideEVs, several other automakers have recalled electric vehicles over the past two months, including Ford, Kia, Rivian and Volkswagen. InsideEVs found that Tesla is the most remembered car brand overall.
VinFast was founded in 2017 as a subsidiary of VinGroup, the largest group in Vietnam. The company began producing gas-powered cars in 2019 before recently transitioning to an all-electric range.
In 2025, VinFast intends to open a massive assembly plant on a megasite near the town of Moncure, about 30 miles southwest of Raleigh. The factory will eventually employ 7,500 people and produce hundreds of thousands of all-electric SUVs each year.
Between the state and the Chatham government, officials have allocated $1.25 billion in tax and other incentives to the project.
This story was produced with the financial support of a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh through an independent journalism grant program. The N&O retains full editorial control of the work.
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Brian Gordon is the Innovate Raleigh reporter for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. He writes about jobs, startups, and all the big tech topics that are transforming the triangle.
