Last April, Green Car Reports arrived in Vietnam early Vinfast VF 8″ prototype preview. After a quick spin on the test track, it became clear that the mid-size electric SUV needed some serious time in the oven before it could be fully ready for US consumers.
After just over 365 days of extra baking, the knife is still not clean.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the door of the VF 8 was the seat material. It’s a faux leather that does a good job of visually simulating the real thing, but the driver’s seat has had wrinkles and general wear and tear. The odometer is less than 1,000 miles, and I can’t imagine what these seats will look like after 20,000 miles.
The next thing that caught my attention was the plastic lever to raise and lower my seat. I noticed it because it broke in my hand. The situation took a turn for the worse when I realized that all the driver-assist safety features on my test device—blind spot monitor, automatic emergency braking, traffic sign recognition , active lane control—all failed and required servicing.
“And these are production cars,” I thought aloud. “Which ones will be delivered to the customer?”
Vinfast was founded in 2017 as a traditional ICE carmaker, but switched to electric vehicles in 2021. Amazingly, the company already has a driveable prototype in place by 2022. In a world where it takes traditional automakers five years or more to introduce a new model, that’s an incredibly fast timeline.
That timeline would be its downfall.
2023 Vinfast VF 8 City Edition
2023 Vinfast VF 8 City Edition
2023 Vinfast VF 8 City Edition
Vinfast VF 8 . range, performance and charging
Let’s get some specs, shall we? The City Edition, which is the first to be distributed in significant numbers on US shores, looks like the standard VF 8 — more in a minute — and is offered in versions Eco and Plus. The difference is all in the battery and charging capacity. The standard car’s 87.7 kWh (usable) battery is replaced by the City Edition’s slightly smaller 82 kWh pack.
Both versions have all-wheel drive, but the Eco makes 348 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque and has a 207-mile EPA range. The Plus version weighs 132 pounds more and has more power, at 402 ponies and 457 pound-feet of torque, clocks with an EPA range of 191 miles.
The liquid-cooled battery pack contains 1,175 nickel-cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) lithium-ion cylindrical cells from supplier Samsung SDI. It can accept a peak charge of around 160 kW, which, according to Vinfast, is enough to charge from 10-70% in 24 minutes or so. If you’re charging at home using Vinfast’s 48-amp home charger, it will use up 11 kW of power or so to fully charge in less than eight hours.
2023 Vinfast VF 8 City Edition
8 . VF performance
Thanks to the fast sport mode, the Plus accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in 5.5 seconds. The acceleration didn’t necessarily put me on flip-flops, but it was satisfying enough. Expect the Eco version to be a second slower.
Vinfast partnered with Pininfarina to design the VF 8, but don’t expect classic Italian styling. Sure, the rear looks great with its segmented taillights and a swipe-down light bar that extends the width of the rear hatch, but the front is a whole different story. The headlights and daytime running lights look like two different vehicles and just overlap. They are definitely giving me that Nissan Juke vibe.
Good design can be subjective, but good materials are not. There’s a lot of hard, grainy plastic inside the VF 8, especially on the door handles, and the glossy black around the cup holders has shown scratches. However, the door sill is nicely padded, as is the dashboard. The door niches are quite deep and there is a retractable storage compartment to the left of the steering wheel. Unfortunately, the seats were packed as I was on my cookie-cutter day at Mrs. Fields. They were tough and resilient, refusing to conform to my own lines. A road trip in this would be a chore.
Now that Vinfast has put me in a car with full driver assistance features, I’m off. The gear selector is arranged as a vertical row of buttons. It’s an odd choice when so many EVs put it on the pole, but whatever. You are friends, Vinfast. There is no gauge cluster, only the center screen and head-up display. When I maxed the brightness, I could see the information on the screen through my polarized sunglasses, but just barely.
2023 Vinfast VF 8 City Edition
Driving impressions of Vinfast VF 8
Driving one isn’t the worst experience I’ve ever had behind the wheel of a car—that will always be for the Fiat 500L—but I’ve certainly had a better experience. The suspension is a bit soft, the bodywork rolls through many bends and it has more squeaks and whistles than a fan boy at a Taylor Swift concert. The brake pedal has at least half an inch of action at the top, and I feel like I don’t know how much force I should press to stop the car appropriately. I’ve never described the feeling of braking as numbing before, but here we are. On broken pavement, the noise, vibration, and harshness of the cabin soar — and a frequency that hurts my admittedly sensitive ears.
The steering, however, crossed the set with me. It’s on the heavy side, which I like. There wasn’t much of a response but this isn’t a sports car and the quick payout ratio makes up for that.
There’s no one-pedal driving here, but there are two levels of regenerative braking. The strongest setting causes the vehicle to slow down significantly, driving the vehicle away at 5 mph or longer until the brakes are applied.
Vinfast VF8
After talking with other journalists, I got the impression that my first car was no exception and it looks like quality control is done all over the map. A person with a car cleverly swerved to the right. Someone’s car rolled upside down on a hill. Others talk about complicated turn signals and some complain about the climate control system making Canada cold or the Sahara hot, regardless of the settings. Our tester neither enabled navigation nor loaded the karaoke feature I promised in the press release.
And thing like to ding. It will ding for any driving violation, noticed or otherwise. I turned off active lane control and speed warnings, but it still sounded for every traffic sign we passed. Some alerts also show visual cues on the center display, but they come and go so fast I can’t read them.
I’m almost relieved that this car also gives error codes, on top of all its active safety tech.
Yes, I have tried two Vinfast V 8 City Edition cars and both have failed driver assistance systems. Mind you, both cars are still drivable, but with a big, fat Request for Service icon.
Prototype VinFast VF 8
Interior space and luggage compartment Vinfast VF 8
The interface is one of the high points of the experience, with the infotainment system being well organized and super easy to use. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are here to stay, and the screen responds quickly with no noticeable lag. Yes, I have to touch those icons very precisely, but at least I don’t have to wait for the next screen to appear.
There’s plenty of room for those in the backseat, even those over 1.8m tall. The rear seats also recline a bit, which eases pressure on passengers as they tolerate hard surfaces.
However, there is a bit of a problem when it comes to overall utility. The VF 8 has 13.2 cubic feet of space behind the rear seats, which expands to 48.4 cubic feet when those seats are folded down. There’s room in the trunk for a backpack and some smaller items. Similar size Ford Mustang Mach-E much better use of the interior space at around 30 and 60 cubic feet respectively, with a body almost twice as large. The KIA EV6 also works better with 24 cubic feet of space, which expands to 50 blocks.
2023 Vinfast VF 8 City Edition
Vinfast offers an excellent 10 year or 125,000 mile warranty for the VF 8 and 10 years/unlimited mileage for the battery. There is also 24/7 roadside assistance. The company has returned to its previous promises battery rental for consumers, but it says that could still be an option in the future if consumers want to.
Vinfast VF 8 City Edition 2023 starts at $50,200 including $1,200 for destination. However, it’s currently only available as a lease and in California only, starting at $414 per month. That’s certainly a pretty low rental price, but this car isn’t ready for consumer delivery yet.
While driving, I felt like I was driving a pre-production car. The ride quality needs tweaking, some of the electronics are messy and the materials might need a bit of an upgrade. Why Vinfast intends to launch this car on the market, I do not know. If it slows down a bit, takes the time to fix the problems we all have, it could really have a decent car. For now, the VF 8 City Edition will do nothing but give Vinfast a bad reputation, a reputation that could take decades to shake off.
—Emme Hall
