All-New VinFast VF8 Electric SUV review // First drive in Vietnam

#VinFastVF8

We’re in beautiful vietnam with vinfast vinfast is north america’s newest electric car company it’s part of the vin group the largest industrial complex in vietnam both the vf-8 and vf9 will be here in north america by the end of the year let’s get in and take this vf8 for a ride andrea we have some guests with us we sure do we’ve got hugh and what’s your name

Young and young in the back all right so uh we have uh this is our instructor and a videographer in the back seat this is a lot of fun and different from the way we usually do it it certainly is we’re not used to having gas see how fast this thing goes electric cars a lot of speed a lot of power and so smooth what’s under the floor of this vf8 there are two vf-8

Models eco and plus with two battery options standard and enhanced range both all-wheel drive eco has 349 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque with 420 kilometers for standard range and 471 kilometers for enhanced zero to 100 kilometers per hour is estimated at 5.9 seconds the plus model has 402 horsepower and 457 pound-feet of torque with 400 kilometers of

Range 447 kilometers of range with the enhanced model 0 to 100 kilometers an hour and this is estimated at 5.5 seconds andrea what are the key standard features of the vf8 the base trim comes with a heat pump a 15.6 inch touchscreen apple carplay and android auto a power driver and passenger seat heated front seats a heated steering wheel leatherette interior

Available leather heated and power folding exterior mirrors a manual lift gate available power liftgate led headlights and led tail lights blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert so one thing you’ll notice about this car is it has big blocky uh letters for park reverse neutral drive what else can we put it in you got to put it in s for subscribe and if

You can hit that notification bell you’ll be notified when all of our reviews drop and then you can watch them and we do this the couple car review twice a week not always from vietnam though so make sure you like and subscribe but also follow along on instagram it’s motormouth underscore andrea to get a sneak peek behind the scenes great pictures from vietnam by

The way and i’m motor mouth underscore auto and the links are below the like button this video is brought to you by carcass canada get the dealer’s cost list of rebates plus discounted interest rates use the promo code motormouth to become an expert member and get extra searches the link is in the description below i gotta tell you i like the way that this drives

If i compare it to something like let’s say the model y with a firmer suspension this is kind of in between you get this smooth ride but you still feel a few bumps in the road i find the feedback through the steering wheel is pretty good i mean typically with electric car can have a numb feeling on the steering but this one you actually feel the imperfections in

The road which is what you want uh it does bounce a little over the bumps but it’s not bad at all i like the feeling of this steering wheel this one is quite thin yeah it has a good feeling in the hand do you want to talk about the outside and then the inside andrea because um uh this is a pinon farina design on the outside so italian you can see almost with the

V they’ve done in the front a you could say it has a bit of an alfa romeo kind of look to it i don’t mind that i think it’s a good looking car i think the exterior design of this looks fabulous it has a european vibe to it which makes sense an italian designer and this comes standard with led headlights and led tail lights and take a look at the back tail lights

Kind of has a bit of a mustang vibe to it so on size closest competitor to this in the electric space would be the tesla model y which is on the bigger end of the compact space they’re calling it a mid-size here in vietnam and i would kind of agree with that we’ll talk about the dimensions on the inside in just a moment but you know what i would say something like

A ford edge would be close in comparison to size i really like the slope roof line vin fast did this for aerodynamic efficiency so that you will get better range which is obviously one of the most important things to consumers when buying an electric vehicle so let’s talk about the inside there’s no sunroof on this base model but it is on the higher trim yes and

This comes with a 15.6 inch touchscreen there are some hard key buttons for temperature on the bottom they stay on the screen you’ve got the center console with a button shifter there is some softer materials in here along with hard plastic and i like the trim piece that is uh has a little bit of detail and a pattern to it as well some high gloss black here at the

Center console as well so they’re gone for a strip of carbon fiber look uh this hard plastic here on the dash pad right in front of me i would prefer if that was coated with something but you know what as a first effort from a brand new brand yeah um i would say i give this totally a passing grade on the inside well interestingly enough the center console here

Which is where you would see hard plastic is soft touch material so they give us and they take us away now moving to the rear seat it doesn’t slide or recline but i gotta tell you there is a lot of space back there so i didn’t do my usual shot of me getting in because it’s very quick here yeah but uh you can see the leg room is ample i wouldn’t say there’s any

Issue with space and then the cargo area is roomy as well this is as we mentioned it’s on the bigger side of the compact almost intermediate size so it’s not a small vehicle so i would say that my impressions of the vf8 are very good i like the way that this handles and drives and i think that the interior is spacious and comfortable it’s interesting that this is

An all new electric vehicle but it doesn’t have a flat rear floor like most other electric cars but it does have a frunk up front for additional storage time now for questions coffee and cars could you please explain a bit further how the battery subscription model works fifty thousand plus a monthly fee of a hundred and thirty nine dollars isn’t it better to buy

A gasoline car with such a fee or a hybrid the vin fast seems like a good car especially the vehicle warranty but i’m kind of confused on the monthly battery subscription so welcome to questions coughing cars not our usual format yeah look where i am yeah and we’ve condensed it down to really one question and that is about the subscription model that they have for

Their battery so vin fast is doing things very differently from every other car brand so you you buy the car you lease the car and then you pay a monthly subscription fee for the battery now you guys are going to write below whether you think this is a good idea or a bad idea but put it this way it’s very different yeah so this is how it works you’re going to pay

139 a month canadian for the vf8 and for the vf9 you’re going to pay 199 per month now one of the reasons why vinfast did this is because people are worried about the battery life and what is the cost to replace a battery 10 to twenty thousand dollars so vinfast guarantees that if the battery dips below 70 percent with charging capacity they’re going to replace

It doesn’t matter if it’s at four years or it’s at eight years that battery is going to be replaced for you now the big problem is with a other car brands if you get an electric car most times the drivetrain is warranted for 10 years right so if you had say a toyota or a ford or something and the battery degradated down to 70 percent before that 10 years you would

Hope that they would stand behind their battery so the big question is why am i paying for the car and paying for the battery as insurance when i already have a warranty and this comes with a 10-year warranty already 200 000 kilometers or 125 000 miles but it’s separate that’s for the running gear of the car and the interior and then the battery is separate so i’m

Not sure this model is easy to understand and explain and once again you let us know what you think about this having to pay 110 dollars in the u.s and 100 and what is it in canada 139 dollars in canada i kind of broke this down let’s say you keep the vehicle for a 10-year period of time at 139 dollars a month that’s gonna cost you sixteen thousand eight hundred

Dollars over ten years now how many people actually keep the vehicle for that period of time let’s say you’re only leasing it for three years that might be just an added expense for you so you’ve really got to look at what drives you to buy these vehicles we have a follower who has put an order in on a vf8 and actually the battery subscription is what he likes he

Is worried very much about having to replace the battery and vin fast is taking care of that for him and that puts him at ease getting into the eevee market i also spoke to another viewer who’s got a fleet of vehicles for his company and this sort of battery subscription puts him at ease because he doesn’t want to have to replace the battery so this is why they’re

Doing it one is the upfront cost to either buy or lease the vehicle is lower because the battery is kept out of it and they feel that the price every month to lease the battery is um a small enough bite that people won’t really notice compared to what they’re paying for in gasoline just now so i’m not sure if this is something they’re going to be married to forever

This is what they’re doing to launch the vehicles and they’re doing it basically to keep the price down there is a flexible plan available for the vfa and it starts at 39 canadian per month for the first 500 kilometers and you add 9 cents per extra kilometer and vin fast says that that price will be guaranteed for the lifetime of the vehicle even if you sell it to

Somebody else all right so let’s get into what the price is of this vehicle with our vital stats for the vf8 let’s start with pricing the eco model starts at fifty one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars in canada and forty thousand seven hundred dollars in the united states with a dc fast charger standard range models will charge from 10 to 70 percent in about

24 minutes and enhance models 31 minutes vinfast has a direct to customer sales model where buyers can order a vf8 or vf9 online and then take delivery service is handled with a valet pickup and drop off model or at home service depending on what the vehicle needs you can reserve your vinfast model for 250 online this is a fully refundable deposit vinfass plans

To open showrooms in canada later this year in the provinces of quebec ontario and british columbia in the u.s vinfast has plans to open 30 stores in california alone by the end of this year and are looking at other states to make their vehicles more accessible the projected target date of the vf8 for deliveries is the end of the year and the vf9 the three-row

Suv early 2023. actually full production at the facility here in vietnam starts at the end of august 2022 so they are coming and you can expect the vf6 and vf7 to come to north america next year so vinfast has got big plans and they are going fully electric no more gas models at the end of august okay so we are doing another video about our trip here to vietnam

Visiting the production facility and who is vinfast and who is the vin group the parent company of infest so if it’s been published i’ll put the card up here it’s definitely worth watching beautiful scenery wonderful people food you’re going to love it so amazing thanks for watching this and that’s a very first look at the vf8 what do you guys think what do you

Think of that subscription model vinfast is living up to its name it is moving fast keep an eye on this company so this company is not only a vietnamese success story it’s got its eyes on north america by the end of this year and worldwide they are going to be a player in the electric car game and this first example i think it’s pretty good but can’t wait to get

It at home and take it for a longer ride this video is brought to you by carcass canada get the dealer’s cost list of rebates plus discounted interest rates use the promo code motormouth to become an expert member and get extra searches the link is in the description below

Transcribed from video
All-New VinFast VF8 Electric SUV review // First drive in Vietnam By Motormouth