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  • City Edition — Why?

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    12/11/2022 at 09:43

    So, we hear 999 VF8s are coming to the US. I’m thinking, yay, one of those could maybe be mine. I’m a reservation converted to order to get the $7500 credit I should be pretty far up the list. Right?

    Then an email drops asking if I want to purchase a ‘City Edition’ with very reduced range. What?

    The kicker is the battery subscription is not sn option on this trim. What? Why? That makes it a very expensive EV with kinda crappy range.

    All this and not much explanation from Vinfast. In fact, none at all.

    oh well. Back to waiting until 2023. Maybe 1st quarter maybe 2nd. I’ll live…….just not very happy no Xmas gift. 🤪

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  • Martin Cochet

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    12/11/2022 at 19:42

    Maybe there were issues to secure enough batteries for the cars, and they really wanted to deliver some before end of 2022 as promised. Makes me worry if the VF9 long range will still happen by end of next year.🤞

  • David Pittman

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    12/12/2022 at 09:07

    Would make way more sense if these were just heading to showrooms and reviewers for test drives, then maybe turned into rentals for fleets or loaners for repairs. That price makes it hard to swallow. If someone needed an entry luxury-level city car with just the occasional 300 mile road trip this wouldn’t be awful. Tho at $50k after discounts might as well get a VW ID 4 or Ioniq 5.

  • Ravi Voleti

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    12/13/2022 at 15:43

    It makes sense only for a potential early investor who wants to check out vinfast EV. If they throw life time “Free charging” and a special battery warranty then it would make sense for lot of other people.

    • Scott Hale

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      12/13/2022 at 16:51

      I think most people will charge at home and the battery already has a pretty good 10yr warranty. I think a more reduced price and include the battery lease would do the trick…..at least for me.

      • Ravi Voleti

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        12/13/2022 at 17:20

        Yes, most people charge at home. There are still quite a lot of people who don’t charge at home. Anyways I agree the price is little too high in general.

      • Brian Ochoa

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        12/14/2022 at 09:16

        I agree the price is too high for me to justify purchasing outright rather than the lease.

  • Dustin Ingalls

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    12/14/2022 at 09:35

    Why would anyone opt to buy this edition? Are they going to end up with 999 cars sitting in a California lot?

    • Scott Hale

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      12/14/2022 at 15:53

      I think most of them will be test drive vehicles for the calif showrooms. And maybe a bunch as rentals to the company that bought a bunch of them.

      They can have them. 😜

  • Martin Cochet

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    12/16/2022 at 10:34

    Another odd thing is when I chatted with a representative they said that the city edition has the standard 87.7kWh battery. So it’s possible they just designed a very inefficient car and they can only get 180 miles EPA of range out of the standard battery, so they had to rebrand it as “City Edition” in a rush.

    I no longer see target range values on the vinfast website either.

    • Martin Cochet

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      12/16/2022 at 10:48

      According to Wikipedia their smaller e34 gets 285km NEDC for 44.5kWh battery size.

      Apparently that corresponds to about 125 miles EPA, i.e. 0.35kWh/mile. (that’s not good for example the Ioniq5 AWD is about 0.30kWh/mile EPA).

      If the VF8 that’s a bigger motor, much heavier than the e34 and AWD takes 40% more power, that would get to 0.49kWh/mile or just about the 180 miles of range for 87.7kWh battery.

      I really hope I’m wrong though, that would be a bad sign for both the VF8 and VF9.

      • Scott Hale

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        12/16/2022 at 11:31

        Nice if Vinfast staff chimed in here.

    • Geoff Roemerman

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      12/20/2022 at 13:35

      I think you hit the nail on the head. My guess is that the EPA range came in significantly lower than they were hoping for, and they had to spin it to buy themselves time while they figured out what to do next. That would also explain some of the ridiculous decisions they stated at their events, like limiting acceleration to conserve power when the battery is under 80%. (trying to squeak out every last mile to save face) I hope we’re wrong, and the battery is different, and the range estimates came off their site due to some marketing regulatory advertising issues, but the lack of communication from Vinfast makes me a.s.sume the worst. (had to spell a.s.sume to get past the naughty language filter) The lack of Vinfast addressing posts like these, and just their overall lack of acknowledging a lot of customer concerns is also really disappointing. I think they realize they have a car that’s no longer attractive to the NA market or the people they presold a vehicle to, and they’re panicking. (Again, hope I’m wrong, I really want an extended range VF9 with over 300 miles range)

      • Scott Hale

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        12/20/2022 at 14:19

        “”The lack of Vinfast addressing posts like these, and just their overall lack of acknowledging a lot of customer concerns The lack of Vinfast addressing posts like these, and just their overall lack of acknowledging a lot of customer concerns””

        that’s it right there. Needs to be better communication with the reservation holders as that is one of the ‘perks’ they mention. I’ve been told they are looking and reading posts here. That’s nice. But perhaps a post or two would be pretty nice as well. Would reduce the spinning and theories.

        I’m not too worried about range. IF they are stuck way below what their ‘target’ was, then they need to adjust the price accordingly. And, of course, keep the battery subscription option. This will be my daily driver; my commute is barely 25 miles per day. My current ICE vehicle will go to my wife, so we have long range abilities. Perfect world. 😜

  • Scott Hale

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    12/16/2022 at 10:44

    That wound be no good at all. Like deal breaker. Even with battery subscription price is way too high for maybe 180 miles not yet confirmed.

    Still not clear why they wouldn’t offer the sub option in the CE trim? I’d go for that.

    Oh well.

  • Scott Davis

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    12/16/2022 at 10:57

    I actually think the City edition and the standard editions are the exact same vehicle. Reasoning pretty much exact same price so they are just software limiting it’s range which means they may allow to purchase range extenders for the city variants.

    Maybe this just wishful thinking. I will still hold off and see how the US reviewers go and decide on Vinfast, Fisker, or Tesla. Tesla has range and charging infrastructure

    • Martin Cochet

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      12/16/2022 at 11:03

      I agree it’s most likely the same hardware as the standard VF8 but would they want to actively limit the range? Just to sell the extra range later? The 180 miles figure is causing them some bad PR now so that doesn’t seem worth it.

      • Scott Hale

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        12/16/2022 at 11:27

        I agree. They knew about this CE trim long before they were shipped. Why spring it on the reservation holders?

        Odd they scrubbed the website of ranges in the FAQS only the CE range is listed

        There’s more going on here hello Vinfast staff? Time to do than lurk here

    • Scott Hale

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      12/16/2022 at 11:30

      I selected Vinfast based on price. Other EVs, way different price. Clearly the others are lux vehicles w a price tag to match.

      • Rolando HERNANDEZ

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        12/16/2022 at 19:10

        Same here. Price was a contributing factor along with the tax incentive. I wouldnt mind the city edition with a leased battery, and when more batteries or materials become readily available have Vinfast swap out. Or offer some type of Vin 1st for new Solid State Battery swap as an incentive for the taking the City Edition.This way they can use the city edition battery for any warranties that may incur.

  • Phong Vo

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    12/16/2022 at 21:10

    It seems like a prep up to entice investors ahead of IPO. Drumming up a fleet of “Special Edition” with far less range to show case strong demand.

    • Scott Hale

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      12/17/2022 at 08:17

      I don’t think so. One, there isn’t a demand among reservation holders. Two, IPO is non-event for all who don’t buy into it. Those who know Vinfast will have done their research.

      Vinfast does not lack financial support.

  • Martin Cochet

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    12/20/2022 at 17:42

    As part of the official statement “the VF 8 City Edition’s battery range has been recently certified by EPA
    at 179 miles for the Eco and Plus models (…) It will be improved with a software update and the new range is expected to be announced by the end of January 2023.”

    So yes it’s what we were thinking. I’m sure they can get a bit of improvement with some SW optimization but nowhere near the expected target 🙁 That probably doesn’t bode well for the VF9 either.

    • Scott Hale

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      12/20/2022 at 18:11

      what is interesting is the Plus gets the same range as the eco? Plus has higher HP, different wheels etc. How can they both get the same range? Even the targets vinfast had on their website showed the models got different ranges with the Plus less range. Huh.

      I’m ok with the reduced range, but they gotta move on the price to reflect they missed…….by a lot…..

      • Shawn R.

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        12/20/2022 at 20:59

        I also thought that was strange basically they just need to lower the price and take the loss to get established and create brand loyalty ( I know easier said than done) everytime they raise the price it rubs me the wrong way even though I locked in with Vinfirst pricing it just seems dirty like I’m getting hustled I’m thinking of maybe just waiting for a Blazer EV or looking at the EV6 again

  • Scott Hale

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    12/21/2022 at 06:44

    I too have been eyeballing the upcoming Chevy Blazer……

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